Can Acupuncture Help with Infertility?

If you’re having difficulty getting pregnant, trying natural fertility options can be an effective (and not as cost-prohibitive) way of improving your chances.  One such natural fertility treatment option is acupuncture.Acupuncture has long been used to treat pain, help with stress management, even help patient’s deal with cravings, but in the last 10 years it is increasingly being used to treat fertility problems, and enjoying much success.What is the effect of acupuncture on infertility and is acupuncture infertility treatment truly effective?First, a little about how acupuncture works.Acupuncture works by restoring energy flow to the body.Chinese medical practitioners believe there are 20 distinct energy pathways that travel throughout the body.  When one of these energy pathways becomes blocked, disease, illness or pain occurs.   By placing needles at specific points, the blockage is minimized, restoring health.  (There are over 2,000 such points in the body.)Western medicine has also come to recognize the benefits of acupuncture, acknowledging that acupuncture causes the release of hormones, such as endorphins, which cause the body to relax and therefore heal.  Such hormones also increase blood flow, enabling antibodies to attack viruses and infections in the body.So what does this all mean in terms of acupuncture’s affect on infertility?Acupuncture works best when a functional problem is the cause of infertility, specifically:    Endometriosis    Ovulatory problems    Hormonal imbalancesFor some women a few rounds of acupuncture treatment resets their internal energy flow and BOOM, they get pregnant.  This is, unfortunately, not always the case.  Many women have found acupuncture has been most effective with dealing with their infertility when it has been used in conjunction with medically assisted procedures, such as IVF.A 2004 study conducted by the Reproductive Medicine and Fertility Center in Colorado found that 51% of women who underwent both IVF and acupuncture treatment at the same time became pregnant, while only 36% of those who underwent IVF had the same result.  The latter group also had a higher rate of miscarriage and stillbirth (20%) compared to those women who had received acupuncture (8%).Men can also utilize acupuncture to treat their infertility problems, including erectile dysfunction or sperm health problems, such as low sperm- count.We have always heard that getting pregnant is the most “natural” thing a human being can do.  Then, reality set in.  Often times our infertility problems are directly associated with how the energy flows through our body.  A fast paced life that turns us all into balls of stress is only magnified when we realize we can’t get pregnant.  Acupuncture may just be the best, and most natural, answer for each and every infertile couple.Find more information on Chinese medicine at our website about Acupuncture in Chicago. Look around and make sure to go to the blog to read more.