INFERTILITY
Unfortunately, very few couples are aware of the value of acupuncture, sometimes assisted by herbs, for the promotion of fertility. I have, at the time of writing this, only completed treatment on 20 ladies for infertility. However, 15 of the 20 ladies are either pregnant or have had healthy babies. Added to this, there is a very high level of success in treating problems with the menstrual cycle, e.g. painful periods, irregular cycles and PMT, that I see more often in the clinic.
In fact treating infertility usually begins by correcting any problems with the menstrual cycle, ensuring that it is regular with a normal period. If the period is normal and the lady is ovulating, then it is likely that the normal physiological processes, such as hormones, are also correct. Additionally, other treatment may be directed at other constitutional imbalances discovered at the initial diagnosis and subsequent treatments.
Often all seems OK in terms of conventional medicine, but still the couple are unable to conceive. Acupuncture can make a difference because it tackles the problem very differently to conventional drug therapy. It may also be that the male partner also needs treatment, despite normal sperm count, motility or morphology.
As a minimum, I need to see ladies weekly through the whole of one cycle, then fortnightly through the next 2. Treatment may be able to go to one monthly treatment after this, often just pre ovulation, sometimes just premenstrually.
Males would probably be seen at a similar frequency, but obviously not related to the cycle!
All my successes have come between 4 and 8 months into treatment, although on one occasion this was on the second attempt.
Half of my cases were natural and the other half were IVF assisted, but it makes sense to try acupuncture initially before the physical, emotional and financial demands of IVF.
