Acupuncture & TCM Articles

More turning to acupuncture for fertility treatment

With more women postponing marriage, a growing number of couples are relying on fertility treatments to help them conceive. Many are also turning to more alternative methods to increase the odds of becoming pregnant.

Click here for larger video According to the Texas Center for Reproductive Acupuncture, one in six couples suffers from some sort of fertility problem, but the group says it's helping a growing number of women -- not only to become pregnant -- but to successfully deliver healthy babies.

Christy Martin, 36, and her husband spent more than two years trying to get pregnant. She said medical fertility treatments didn't work.

“We were at the maximum amount of dosage of shots and they told us, 'you're done. You're not even stimulating your eggs anymore....'’ said Martin.

After a hitting a heartbreaking hurdle, Martin kept trying.

“I just wasn't ready to accept defeat yet,’ said Martin. So she turned to reproductive acupuncturist, Kirsten Karchmer. Five months later, she was pregnant.

“I cried a whole lot that day,’ said Martin.

“If we work on the assumption that your body communicates with electricity, that neurons travel along nerves via electricity, when you put a needle in your body, which is metal, it disrupts that movement,’ said Karchmer. She believes reproductive acupuncture, including Chinese herbal medicine, nutritional counseling, and stress management, can significantly improve a woman's chances of becoming pregnant.

“Within the realm of infertility, there's so many different problems -- there's poor ovarian reserve, there's…no menstrual cycle, there's extremely painful menstrual cycles, there are endometriosis, there are lot of different diagnosis, so for each of those different diagnosis, we try to understand why does that patient present with those symptoms, then correct those symptoms,’ said Karchmer.

Karchmer says about 92 percent of her patients become pregnant during a 12 month span, about 40 percent of them use medical fertility treatments in conjunction with acupuncture.

“To be able to make your own was pretty cool,’ said Martin. She´s expecting a baby girl in October.

While many doctors support reproductive acupuncture in conjunction with fertility drugs, some discourage the use of herbal medicines.

Reproductive acupuncture costs about $80 per session.

Chinese Medicine in Fertility Disorders

Written by experts in Chinese medicine, this textbook provides a comprehensive overview of Chinese medicine therapies for fertility disorders. It opens by reviewing the basics of current Western reproductive medicine in terms of diagnosis, treatment options, and possible risks. The book then introduces the reader to traditional Chinese fertility treatments, providing information about how they complement Western reproductive medicine.
The authors describe in detail the different treatment methods, ranging from qi gong and tui na to moxibustion and acupuncture to Chinese dietetics and medicinal therapy. The main section of the book provides in-depth discussion of specific fertility disorders and their management, including menstrual disorders, early menopause, sexual disorders, male infertility, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary syndrome. It closes with a section on patient support, addressing issues such as the mind-body relationship and the impact of stress.