Fertility acupuncture involves the use of acupuncture, personalized herbal medicine, nutrition, lifestyle advice, and stress reduction techniques to treat health conditions that interfere with conception as well as improve body systems that support conception and a healthy pregnancy. Fertility acupuncture is an important component in the landscape of reproductive medicine because there are so few options available for a couple having difficulty conceiving. If you’ve ever thought that there should be more options than ovulation induction, surgery, IUI and IVF, I have good news for you; there is! Here are some reasons to see a fertility acupuncturist:
1. IVF or IUI are not accessible to you. There is a significant financial barrier to fertility care that cannot be overlooked. It is a unique area of medicine because a lot of the care is not covered by insurance and it can be difficult to understand the exact cost but the average cost of 1 cycle of IVF in the US is $12,000 (https://www.ivfauthority.com/ivf-cost/). Combine that with the fact that most couples need an average of 2.6 cycles to have a live birth, the price tag can be downright scary! Maybe this is why only 38% of women who have difficulty conceiving will ever seek treatment (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fertility-treatment-access_n_5bc51497e4b0d38b58706b15) . The cost of fertility treatment for someone in Northwest Arkansas is even higher due to the travel costs associated with seeing a specialist. Most patients in the region travel to Little Rock, Tulsa, Kansas City or Texas for their care, adding significant cost to an already expensive journey. The average fertility patient in our clinic spends approximately $1,600, making fertility treatment with us much more affordable.
2. You want to improve overall health or treat a problem that could be interfering with conception naturally. There are several health conditions that interfere with or reduce the likelihood of conceiving. Many, if not all, of these conditions can be treated safely and successfully with acupuncture, personalized herbal medicine and lifestyle modifications. Some of these conditions include:
PCOS
Amenorrhea
Irregular menstrual cycle
Thin Uterine lining
Luteal Phase defect
Premature ovarian failure
Male factor infertility
Subfertility
Endometriosis
3. You want support or to improve your chances of success with ART (IUI or IVF).
Fertility treatment with IUI or IVF can be an extremely stressful process. There are frequent doctors appointments, complicated medication regimes, so many unknowns and so much out of your control. It can be an absolute game changer to have a fertility acupuncturist on your team to help reduce stress, manage emotional ups and downs, improve sleep, help with blood flow to the ovaries and uterus and so much more. Just take is from one of our patients who had a successful IVF transfer and wrote to us when she was 18 weeks pregnant:
“I truly cannot find the words to thank you for your support over the last year. It was one of the more challenging experiences of my life/ Your kindness and support was a massive bright light as I navigated through it all, and you genuinely helped me so much to harness the energy to keep moving forward.”
4. You would like to improve overall health as well as egg and sperm quality to ensure your best genes get passed down to your baby. Contrary to what we used to believe, your genes do not shape your healthy destiny. Yes, it’s true that your genes cannot be changed but they can be turned on or off based on lifestyle and environmental factors. So if something like diabetes or high blood pressure runs in your family that does not mean your children are destined for these conditions. The genes that give you a propensity for these conditions can be turned off! This has huge implications for the health of your future children and is a primary focus of any fertility treatment in our clinic.
If you or someone you know is having trouble conceiving please come see us! We can recommend great doctors to get a thorough work up from as well as use our tried and true Chinese Medicine tricks to improve fertility naturally! Truly the best of both worlds.
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