Fertility is a factor for many people and the good news is that you don’t have to rely on standard medicine treatments if you should have trouble falling pregnant. There are plenty of natural fertility treatment options available that are less invasive, more relaxing, and that work. Read on to learn more.

Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine and Fertility

Acupuncture can be used to help both male and female fertility. Good candidates for acupuncture are people that have a functional rather than a structural reason for infertility (for example, damaged fallopian tubes are structural). Acupuncture can be used to encourage optimal sperm production and function in the male and for adjusting endocrine function and balancing hormones in the females. Environmental factors such as pesticides, exogenous estrogens, and heavy metals have been shown to have a negative effect on sperm count.

Acupuncture, as well as specific herbal medicines, has been shown to have a positive effect on sperm. In women, acupuncture adjusts the endocrine function of the generative and physiologic axis of women, stimulating ovulation. Auricular acupuncture is also valuable for female infertility due to hormone disorders.

Acupuncture helps by regulating your body’s system, aiding in blood flow to the reproductive organs and stabilising hormone levels. It also helps women to stay more relaxed during fertility treatments, with studies showing that acupuncture definitely increases the rate of pregnancy in women that are undergoing IVF treatment.

Treatments should begin three to four months before trying to conceive or before any medically assisted treatment such as IVF. It should continue for the first twelve weeks of pregnancy in order to help prevent miscarriage. However, the acupuncturist should not place needles in the abdomino-pelvic area after pregnancy occurs or after embryo transfer or insemination. The acupuncture points that should be avoided are gallbladder 21, stomach 12, large intestine 4, spleen 6, bladder 60, bladder 67, and any points on the lower abdomen.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is safe, natural and has no side effects. It is able to improve the chances of conception, increase the lining of the uterus, increase sperm count, increase the basal body temperature, regulate hormones, prevent miscarriage, induce ovulation, and much more. TCM formulas, many of which have been used for thousands of years, work to balance the male or female’s hormonal system. The formula will be specifically tailored to the person and the imbalance that has been identified. In TCM, some herbs used in the formulas have been clinically proven to aid infertility, and these are carefully combined with other herbs in order to match the person’s signs and symptoms as closely as possible. Specific herbs may also be used based on conventional medical examination findings.

In TCM theory, the kidney is the internal organ responsible for reproduction, growth, and aging. If the kidney energy is insufficient to support normal growth and development, or becomes depleted by environmental factors, problems can result, including infertility. Kidney deficiency is actually the most common cause of infertility in TCM. Other patterns that can result in infertility include liver qi stagnation, blood stasis or deficiency, and dampness with phlegm or heat.

To use Western medical terms, TCM has good success with functional infertility, which results from factors such as hormone imbalances, endocrine gland disorders, and emotional problems. It can also help with some structural infertility problems such as pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis, vaginitis, ovary dysfunction, and immune system related infertility. TCM is also used to strengthen and balance a person’s general health so that Western fertility treatments are more effective.

Our Practitioners are:

Sue Booth.