Three Ways Acupuncture Improves Fertility
Santa Cruz is a great place to raise kids, but if you want children and are having trouble conceiving, it can also be a tough place to be!
Over 15 years serving women’s health through acupuncture, I have learned that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for fertility: Just as every body is different, every fertility challenge is different.
Acupuncture is a process-oriented treatment, sort of like physical therapy. We don't expect the body to change instantly, but the results are long-lasting and transformative. My holistic approach to fertility is to learn as much your body, lifestyle, and history as possible, then create a tailored plan to help you achieve your fertility goals. I look at your labs. I look at your diet. I comb through just about everything until we figure out what we can do to bring YOUR fertility back to life.
Can acupuncture actually succeed where western medicine has failed? Absolutely, and there’s been an outpouring of scientific data in the past few years to back this up. Here are three key areas in which acupuncture works to improve pregnancy outcomes:
Acupuncture to beat PCOS and balance hormones: A summary of research published in the Shanghai Journal of Acupuncture shows over and over again that patients receiving acupuncture treatment for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (a common health issue for women) show significant improvement in a number of key fertility areas. These studies looked at everything from menstrual regularity and ovulation frequency to the success of in-vitro fertilization. In every result cited, outcomes for the women studied had improved. In one study that looked specifically at electroacupuncture, the success rate was nearly 90% for treating PCOS symptoms!
Holistic traditional Chinese medicine to manage stress: This sounds like a simple one, especially in a relaxed place like Santa Cruz, but I can’t over-emphasize the importance of calming down in improving conception rates. A 2012 study by Tel Aviv University backs me up: They found that using traditional Chinese medicine focused on overall well being (including acupuncture and herbs), 65% of women were able to conceive, compared to just 39% in a test group that did not receive the Chinese medicine treatments. What I love most about this study is that the group with the higher conception rate (the group that received traditional Chinese medicine) actually had an older average age (39) than the women in the control group!
Balancing Yin and Yang for long-term health. Western fertility specialists like to point to specific causes that women can’t get pregnant, but the truth is that there are many moving parts. Instead of addressing each “problem” individually, Chinese medicine looks at the whole body. Issues like over- or under-active thyroid are caused by an imbalance of the Yin and Yang energetic forces. When these are off, it can affect everything from sleep to digestion — and that’s where acupuncture is great. In fact, I see infertility not so much as a women’s health “issue” as a gateway to improving overall health. If you’ve never had acupuncture before, it’s a great place to start because the results for fertility can be so dramatic and gratifying.
It’s exciting for me to use my acupuncture knowledge and experience to build families here in Santa Cruz. And, I love that traditional Chinese medicine goes beyond pregnancy — pediatric care is one of the most rewarding parts of my practice.
In your fertility journey, choosing the right healthcare partner(s) is the most important thing you can do. Relationships are everything, and they’re part of what makes the alternative healthcare fields, especially acupuncture, unique and effective. Contact me for a free 10-minute consultation, and let’s start making babies!
