Acupuncture and IVF
Posted on August 13, 2008
Welcome to the Twin Peas Blog and Podcast! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my updates by RSS feed or you can have new posts and episodes sent right to your Email. Thanks for visiting!
A new study shows the benefits of utilizing alternative treatments along with IVF. The Colorado fertility clinic noticed a 15 percent increase in pregnancies and a 23 percent in live births. So not only does acupuncture help women to get pregnant, it seems to help women stay pregnant too. Many women in the study became pregnant during their joint IVF/Acupuncture treatment and didn’t have to undergo a second treatment to become pregnant. This is exciting stuff!
I personally didn’t utilize acupuncture, but I did utilize alternative treatments - mainly positive thought. As I discussed in a previous post, I used counseling and the power of positive thought to overcome the increased prolactin produced by my pituitary tumor. I can see how acupuncture could produce similar results as it directly impacts the body (and indirectly the mind).
If your contemplating fertility treatments, consider adding acupuncture or any other non-traditional method to prepare your body to welcome a baby. Acupuncture may not work for everyone. So if you don’t see any results from acupuncture, then try something else. One method doesn’t work for everyone.
Has anyone hear of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)? This is a process where you tap certain areas of your body, such as your forehead, temples, etc. and you can release your blocks. Sometimes we don’t realize we are standing in our own way of what we want, both in business and our personal lives. Here is a YouTube video on EFT (I don’t know this guy, but it gives you an idea of what it is about). It’s similar to the logic of acupuncture on healing your body.
Creative Commons image courtesy of jessamyn.
» Filed Under Infertility, pregnancy
Comments
2 Responses to “Acupuncture and IVF”
Leave a Reply
I would encourage any woman thinking of venturing down the path of IVF to work with an experienced acupuncturist for 3-6 months first. Give your body the best chance you can at a natural pregnancy. Today, many women are rushing (sorry to say this, but it’s true) to IVF and other ART procedures before really understanding the imbalances in their bodies or their partners’ bodies.
I have seen a number of women with up to 3 failed IVFs get pregnant naturally with acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. Many of these couples had male factor sub fertility, which was never mentioned to them by their doctors. It’s very important to figure out the cause of infertility before moving forward with IVF.
I agree that sometimes we move forward with IVF or other traditional treatments before trying alternative methods. For some of us, eg. me and my DH, our only option was IVF. There was no amount of acupuncture or Chinese medicine that would have helped his MF infertility.
Keep in mind that 1) infertility is very emotional, 2) some folks don’t understand the benefits of non-traditional methods, and 3) non-trad methods are generally not covered by insurance (nor are fertility treatments in most states). These 3 factors no doubt impact the direction many couples lean toward.