Fertility

All About Acupuncture for Fertility

First of all, can acupuncture help with fertility?
If you’re trying to conceive, chances are that electrical stimulation is at the bottom of your list. But acupuncture is a traditional tactic that stimulates energy in your body without any electricity. In fact, all that the practitioner needs are surgically sterilized, hair-thin needles to trigger various parts of your body.
Thanks to research on acupuncture treatments and fertility, clinics have been filling up faster than ever. With more couples seeking treatments, acupuncture can help both live birth rates and conception rates.
As a natural way to improve a woman’s fertility, acupuncture can be used to treat everything from:

• Endometriosis
• Polycystic ovarian syndrome
• Ovarian reserve issues

On the other hand, acupuncture for men is helpful to improve both their sperm count and quality. People undergoing in vitro fertilization or intrauterine insemination often get acupuncture treatments too.
It takes about three months for sperm and eggs to develop fully. For best results, women and men should get acupuncture up to three months in advance of their fertility treatments. That way, you will more likely see the best results.

How Acupuncture Helps Fertility

Chinese acupuncturists have healed the female reproductive system for many years. To back this up, science has shown that acupuncture can actually impact the peripheral and central nervous systems. By placing needles in a way that triggers your brain, endorphins release, helping stress levels and balancing hormones.
Not only that, but acupuncture can also have a miraculous effect on the outcome of your pregnancy too. That’s because getting an acupuncture treatment can improve your fertility by:

• Increasing a man’s sperm motility and count
• Reducing anxiety and stress linked to infertility
• Normalizing endocrine systems and hormone production
• Improving reproductive organ blood flow
• Reducing the odds of miscarriage
• Decreasing any inflammation associated with infertility
• Regulating a woman’s monthly menstrual cycle
• Increasing the odds of pregnancy during in vitro fertilization

Moving forward, let’s talk about how acupuncture can help embryo, egg, and sperm quality, shall we?

Acupuncture & Embryo, Egg, and Sperm Quality

If you’ve never tried this method of Chinese medicine for fertility, then here’s what you should know. First things first, starting with “healthy eggs” is the most important step in having a successful future with your new baby. To begin, getting an acupuncture treatment can help increase both embryo and egg quality.
In fact, acupuncture may be able to help improve kidney deficiencies too, which can cause you to have irregular menstrual periods as well. Since PCOS is linked to kidney deficiencies, this holistic treatment may increase your fertility odds too.
Now that we’ve got that covered, let’s talk about how acupuncture can also improve a male’s sperm count. As you may already know, sperm is a vital part of growing an embryo and creating a child. That means that it’s a myth that a female is primarily responsible for a couple’s overall fertility problems.
As a result, receiving acupuncture for male fertility is a great way to increase both fertilization rates and semen quality. This is especially true for couples who need a hand getting pregnant. That’s because acupuncture for men can help everything from sperm motility to sperm concentration.
Has your partner ever had a failed intracytoplasmic sperm injection?
If yes, acupuncture might help them recover fertility too. We recommend that your partner should get two months of acupuncture before they have another sperm injection session. On top of their fertilization rates, their normal sperm ratio should also increase.

Acupuncture & IVF Success Rates

Speaking of IVF success rates, acupuncture may be able to improve this process in an alternative way. As we’ve already discussed, acupuncture can positively improve:

• Clinical pregnancy rates
• Pregnancy outcomes
• Success rates for couples who have failed IVF in the past

That being said, this is good news for women undergoing IVF to improve clinical pregnancy rates as well. After receiving a few acupuncture treatments, women should experience reduced stress. Not to mention increased satisfaction and endometrial thickness.
As you may already know, limiting the amount of stress in life is crucial during your fertility treatments. Fortunately for you, acupuncture may be able to benefit females with failed IVF treatments too. Sounds good to us!

Acupuncture and Pre-Existing Conditions

If you have one of the following fertility conditions, having a baby the natural way may be difficult if you suffer from:

• Polycystic ovary syndrome
• Endometriosis
• Ovarian cysts

If you’re a fan of Western medicine, you can enhance its benefits by getting acupuncture to improve any infertility symptoms. For instance, women who have polycystic ovary syndrome often have to deal with anovulation. And when a woman can’t ovulate properly, then she can’t give birth.
Thankfully for you, getting acupuncture treatments can kick start ovulation in women with PCOS. It may also be able to help people undergoing IVF treatment with PCOS. In a nutshell, acupuncture can help pregnancy outcomes by improving kidney health and pregnancy rates.
If you suffer from endometriosis, then you’ll be happy to know that acupuncture can help you:

• Balance hormones
• Improve uterus health
• Increase blood flow

Since endometriosis causes abnormalities in your uterus, this impairment may lead to infertility. However, acupuncture may help you receive more positive results as soon as you receive treatment.
For those of you with a “poor ovarian reserve,” acupuncture may be available to improve your infertility by increasing the quality of your ovary cells too!

Acupuncture and Reproductive Hormones

At the end of the day, having imbalanced hormones may harm your fertility too. Surprisingly, though, acupuncture can potentially improve your sex hormone production, bringing overall balance to your body by increasing:

• Estrogen
• Progesterone
• Prolactin
• Other hormones

By getting your hormones back on track, your menstrual health should be improved as well. In addition to increasing your hormone production, it may also help your reproductive functioning by expanding your ovulation frequency too.

When to Get Acupuncture Treatments

At your local acupuncture clinic, you can expect your acupuncturist to Eastern, Western, and other healing strategies to improve your odds of getting pregnant. By improving your overall health before your first fertility treatment, you’re more likely to have a healthy, fertile body beforehand. This explains why acupuncture treatments have been linked to:

• More babies
• More pregnancies
• More live births
• Fewer miscarriages
• Fewer ectopic pregnancies

If you’re wondering when to schedule your first acupuncture for fertility appointment, then listen closely. The best time to get it done this 30 to 60 days before your fertility treatment. Also, receiving acupuncture during your pregnancy or your fertility treatment is another great option too.
Our general rule of thumb is that the sooner you start your acupuncture therapy, the better. Since it takes a few months for sperm and eggs to develop, starting your acupuncture treatment several months prior is the smartest way to go.

Acupuncture for Male Fertility

Good news, guys: you don’t have to worry about getting any needles stuck “down below” anytime soon. That’s because acupuncture for males can increase sperm quality without any needles placed below the belt.
For best results, we recommend that you get acupuncture treatment once a week before attempting to conceive. As a matter of fact, you might want to continue this type of treatment beyond the fertility process to manage stress in the long run.

Acupuncture for Female Fertility

For females, do your best to follow this treatment cycle while you receive treatment for ovulation induction:

• One acupuncture session during your follicular
• A second acupuncture session during your ovulation phase
• A third acupuncture session during your luteal phase
• A fourth acupuncture treatment during your menstruation phase

Pro tip – repeat these treatments as much as necessary!

Ask Us About Acupuncture for Fertility

Want to ask our team of experts about acupuncture for fertility?
If yes, we are more than happy to help you out. From male to female fertility, we’ve got everything you need to succeed. Not only can acupuncture boost sperm count, but it can also increase egg quality too.
And trust us – any help you can get in the fertility department makes a big difference in the pregnancy process!
Ready to make your first acupuncture for fertility appointment?
Book an appointment to experience the benefits of acupuncture for fertility today.