why you should try acupuncture for fertility issues
First off I’d like to say that most people with fertility issues aren’t permanently or hopelessly infertile. The Cleveland Clinic describes infertility as: a condition where you can’t get pregnant after one year of trying to conceive. Causes of infertility can include ovulatory disorders, endometriosis, low sperm count or low testosterone. The risk of infertility increases as you age.
Typically, your medical doctor will tell you to try for one year before they refer you to a reproductive endocrinologist. Meanwhile, couples are getting frustrated seeing time pass by with no results because they aren’t sure what they need to work on.
Here are the most common issues fertility issues I deal with as an acupuncture doctor:
Irregular menstrual cycles
Anovulation/ovulation issues
Low sperm count/low sperm quality
One or both partners experiencing a stressful work environment
Insomnia
Poor nutrition
Chronic dehydration
Sedentary lifestyle
Chronic disease
Consistent exposure to endocrine disruptors
The list truly goes on, but addressing these is a major factor in reaching most people’s fertility goals.
How does acupuncture work?
Acupuncture is the insertion of stainless steel surgical-grade needles into specific acupuncture points that associate with the 14 channels/meridians in our bodies. Each channel correlates to a specific organ or organ system. When an acupuncture needle is inserted the signal from the point it was inserted communicates with the nervous system and sends a signal to the brain instantaneously. At almost the same time the signal gets sent to other areas of the body like the circulatory system and to the smallest units of your body called the cells.
This initiates a Qi response. Qi represents the ‘life force’ in your body. It is what animates your body and helps it move and respond to different stimuli. It’s what makes you alive and feel vitality. Feel-good hormones like dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins are released when acupuncture is administered.
Qi can change as we age or as we go through different stressors in our lives. When Qi is out of balance we start to see dis-ease. Addressing Qi is one of the major factors of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Almost any health condition or disease you can think of is rooted in some kind of Qi issue.
As TCM and acupuncture doctors we learn how to treat the pathways in the body with acupuncture to help our patients heal. This is why we are able to address a large range of conditions without using any medication.
How Acupuncture Addresses Fertility
As discussed above, acupuncture brings in those feel-good hormones (neurotransmitters). Modulating the nervous system helps switch the nervous system from fight or flight to rest and relax. This lowers anxiety and cortisol levels. Your adrenals will thank you for this!
In women, being overstressed and overworked tanks your ability to have children and have healthy menstrual cycles. For men it causes low sperm quality. The body simply uses the resources it would be sending to your reproductive organs to support you during stressful times. When you are in survival mode your body is not thinking about fertility.
The benefit of getting acupuncture helps you calm TF down! For most couples this is all they need before they see pregnancy success. It generally takes additional lifestyle changes, but working with an Acupuncturist will really put things in motion especially if you have nowhere else to turn and your medical doctor is telling you to wait for a year before you’re diagnosed with infertility.
Menstrual Cycle Regulation
This is a huge factor in pregnancy success. Without a healthy menstrual cycle the body will not release a healthy egg. We address this issue before anything else. I tell patients to expect to work with me for 3-6 months getting things on track. I also incorporate Chinese herbal formulas specific to their issues.
Sperm Quality
Many of my patients often overlook their partner’s sperm health. I still see more women than men for fertility issues. What I am noticing is the male partner needs just as much work as the female but they aren’t coming in. What is that about? Traditionally fertility is looked at as a woman’s thing, but research has shown that poor sperm health is responsible for recurrent miscarriages. So well after the egg has been successfully fertilized the embryo still needs instructions to carry out the rest of the pregnancy. The sperm contain this other set of DNA. A condition in sperm called DNA fragmentation is the leading cause of this.
My question is why wait? Why not do something about it right now?
One of the many dilemmas I see is couples not wanting to make the financial investment or not trusting that this will help them to make the investment. You truly don’t lose anything in this process. If you work with a licensed and board certified Acupuncture and TCM doctor you truly have nothing to lose but time. Trust me, those IVF treatments cost much more and only have around a 50% success rate. They also do not take a holistic approach and it does not truly get to the root cause of your fertility issues.
