Acupuncture for Infertility

They call it the miracle of life for good reason. When you consider how many things have to happen just perfectly for your little bundle of joy to actually get a start on the inside, it really does seem miraculous:

  • Your hormones have to work the make an egg mature in the first place.
  • That egg needs to be of a good enough quality and able to mature.
  • The follicle that develops the mature egg, needs to be able to rupture and release it.
  • The fallopian tube needs to “pick up” that released egg.
  • The sperm needs to actually survive the trip through vagina and cervix and into the uterus and be able the find the egg.
  • The sperm has to be healthy and strong enough to actually penetrate the egg.
  • The now fertilized egg has to divide and continue to until it implants.
  • The endometrial lining needs to be properly developed and receptive to implantation.

This, and more, all has to happen at the right time of the month–and that can be a bit of a moving target itself. It truly is a miracle that babies get made at all!

It is estimated that the current rate of infertility is about 50% for couples with a female partner under age 35, and about 80% by age 40. That represents a lot of couples who are having problems with one of our basic human drives.

There are many treatments now for couples with infertility, but one that is getting a lot of attention is acupuncture. Whether used on its own or in concert with conventional infertility treatments, research continues to show that acupuncture consistently improves outcomes in almost all cases.

  • In 2002 a study published in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility followed 160 women who underwent IVF. 80 women received acupuncture with IVF and the other 80 received IVF only. In the IVF only group, 21 women got pregnant compared to 34 in the IVF + acupuncture.
  • Another piece of research compared acupuncture to Clomid (an ovulation-stimulating drug). It was found that within 3 months of using either treatment there was a 50% pregnancy rate.

How does acupuncture work to improve fertility? The practitioners of Traditional Chinese medicine would say it balances the flow of the Qi (or energy) throughout the body. From a western medicine perspective, it is believed that it increases pelvic blood flow, calms the nervous system promoting relaxation, and reduces uterine contractions.

Regardless of the belief system, the outcome is the same: more miracles. 🙂

Dr. Candice Soldaat is StoneTree Clinic’s naturopathic doctor with a special interest in infertility. You can book an appointment online here, or call 705-444-5331.