Fertility Acupuncture & IVF

Acupuncture May Be Helpful for Fertility in Conjunction with IVF

Preliminary studies show that IVF acupuncture is of benefit to women undergoing IVF treatments. In this particular study carried out in South Australia, women identified four main perceptions they had toward acupuncture in relation to their reproductive health:

(a) Awareness of, and perceived benefits of acupuncture;

(b) Perceptions of the body and the impact of acupuncture upon it;

(c) Perceptions of stress and the impact of acupuncture on resilience; and

(d) Perceptions of the intersection of medical treatment and acupuncture.

This preliminary explorative study confirms that IVF acupuncture is indeed perceived by infertile women to have an impact on their health. The authors suggest that further studies of acupuncture as an adjunct to IVF should systematically explore the issues of wellbeing, anxiety, personal and social resilience and women’s identity in relation to sexuality and reproduction.

SOURCE: BMC Complement Altern Med. 2009 Dec 12;9:50. De Lacey S, Smith CA,Paterson C. Building resilience: a preliminary exploration of women’sperceptions of the use of acupuncture as an adjunct to In Vitro Fertilisation.

Fertility Acupuncture for IVF (& IUI, ICSI)

We treat many women with IVF acupuncture throughout their IVF process with phenomenal results. Quite often, doctors are shocked by the change in egg and embryo quality from clients who have had many prior IVF cycles with poor results. The idea is to put you in the best possible shape to give your body the best opportunity for releasing quality eggs, developing a lush womb lining and feeling as calm as possible, in order to give your little embryo the best opportunity to embed and rest comfortably within you.

Ideally, we like to work with you and your partner for several months with weekly treatments, until your assisted cycle begins. However, if you’ve only learned of us in the midst of your process, we can still support you from where you’re at.

What we recommend …

For Women

Fully stimulated IVF/ICSI cycle:

• Weekly acupuncture treatments for 8 weeks prior to start date.
• Weekly treatment leading up to your egg pick up – encouraging healthy egg and endometrium development.
• One session after egg pick up and before the embryo transfer – we want to ensure that inflammation from the procedure is minimal, and also support your recovery.
• Post-transfer treatments – we will see you after your transfer, ideally on the same day.
• After your transfer, we continue to see you weekly until week 13–14 to support your pregnancy, or we continue weekly leading up to your next transfer or assisted cycle.

For Men

We can provide you with herbs to help your sperm quality reach its potential. There is also strong evidence that acupuncture helps with motility, and clinically we have seen it impact morphology, DNA fragmentation, and sperm count. So in this instance we would recommend:

• Weekly treatment for 8 weeks in the lead-up to your partner’s start date
• Weekly treatment throughout her stimulated cycle so you are at your best to produce a top-quality sperm sample (it takes four months for one sperm to grow and so sperm can be radically changed over the course of that time… how many there are, how easily they swim, the shapes of them etc).

So where to from here?

Read more on fertility and how you can improve your chances of conception

Book online today.

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