The decision to start a family is an exciting time for any couple, and for some, may come more easily than others. So naturally, Fertility is a growing area of interest for couples that are trying to fall pregnant. For these couples, pregnancy and growing a family is a high priority and it’s understandable that they are increasingly looking for ways to enhance their fertility outcomes to achieve their dream of having a baby.
In a nation where approximately one in six couples experience fertility challenges, finding holistic and effective solutions has never been more crucial. According to a recent Australian study, women who underwent Acupuncture treatment reported a notable improvement in menstrual regularity and ovulatory patterns.
This field of complementary medicine is not only scientifically backed but also naturally aligns with your body’s needs. If you’re one of the many couples looking to optimise your fertility, you’ve come to the right place. Discover how Acupuncture can harmonise your reproductive hormones, enhance egg quality, improve sperm parameters, and significantly reduce stress—all key elements in achieving a healthy pregnancy.
Understanding Fertility
It’s important for everyone to realise that Fertility or the capacity to conceive a child is related to BOTH the male and female’s DNA and naturally, affects both men and women in equal proportions. Fertility may be affected by many things from overall health, lifestyle, diet and genetic factors. In saying this, every couple trying to fall pregnant wants to do what they can to:
- Fall pregnant
- Stay pregnant
- Give birth to a healthy baby
To achieve all the above, it’s imperative that one of the things we do is focus on enhancing the overall health of the mother and father-to-be in the lead-up to pregnancy. At this early stage, a proactive approach to health is most powerful.
Thanks to research and technology, it’s now well understood that the health of the mother and father is directly related to the health of the baby. We also know that research shows eggs and sperm, the DNA contributions from the mother and father, are vulnerable to the effects of toxins, stress and nutritional deficiencies in the 3-4 months leading up to conception. For this reason, it’s important to allow time to assess the overall state of health of both mother and father-to-be to identify any health and lifestyle issues that may impact your fertility, pregnancy and the health of your future baby.
Proactively focusing on the health of both parents in the lead-up to conception, allows the opportunity to detoxify the body, regulate hormones and improve overall lifestyle to best support optimal conception.
Who Should Try Acupuncture to Improve Fertility?
We support the Fertility Journey at any stage. The role of Acupuncture in treating Fertility for women increases blood flow to the ovaries and the uterus to support a healthy ovarian follicle and uterine lining. It also decreases inflammation and corrects subtle hormone imbalances for both men & women.
Fertility Acupuncture is appropriate for couples trying to fall pregnant at all ages and states of health, including:
- Healthy, fertile couples who want to do everything that they can to give their future baby the best possible start to life
- Couples struggling with infertility relating to both males and females, including “unexplained infertility”, problems with sperm count, sperm motility, ovulation problems, menstrual cycle irregularities, endometriosis, PCOS and other hormonal imbalance issues
- Couples who have suffered a miscarriage
- Couples undergoing IVF and other Assisted Reproductive Technologies to improve the success rate of these procedures by including Acupuncture for fertility
- Older couples, including women over 40 years to enhance fertilisation of eggs and other possible concerns.
Using treatment such as Acupuncture to naturally enhance Fertility not only means enhancing your health and therefore the health of your future child, but it’s also a massive opportunity to dive deep and address ongoing and developing health concerns that you would otherwise possibly let slide. Think of this as an opportunity to prioritise your health and happiness which is great preparation for parenthood ahead and setting up a balanced family lifestyle.
What Does Fertility Acupuncture Involve?
To achieve the best possible outcomes, Acupuncture for Fertility is entirely based on the needs of the individual or couple and may involve:
- In-depth assessment of each partner’s state of health and fertility
- A treatment plan focused on addressing weaknesses in health and fertility status
- Lifestyle advice to set you up for success in your overall state of health
Treatment may also involve other natural therapies including Massage, Cupping Therapy, Herbal Medicine and Mineral Supplementation where appropriate.
As for how Acupuncture is applied and why, needles are inserted at key points throughout the body in order to:
- Regulate reproductive hormones
- Boost blood circulation to reproductive organs and improve female egg quality
- Facilitate embryo implantation
- Enhance the quality and quantity of sperm
- Lower stress and anxiety
Acupuncture Regulates Female Reproductive Hormones
For optimum fertility, female reproductive hormones must be in balance. Commonly, we address reproductive hormones such as Progesterone, Oestrogen, and Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), which if not all balanced can indicate various conditions affecting women as well as affecting their fertility health.
A good example of how Acupuncture can assist in regulating hormones is when FSH levels are too high. The FSH is necessary for the formation and growth of ovarian follicles. These follicles produce estrogen and progesterone in the ovaries and help maintain the menstrual cycles in women. If FSH levels are high, this means the body is going to need to work harder to stimulate ovarian function.
We usually see raised or high FSH levels in women entering/in Menopause, women with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) or women with impaired ovarian function. Often these women with increased FSH levels do not respond well to ovarian stimulation medications and tend to produce fewer eggs following assisted reproductive procedures such as IVF. So, it’s great that studies show treatments such as Acupuncture have been successful in reducing elevated FSH levels, by increasing blood flow to the uterus to aid in follicle development.
Many studies show that Acupuncture has a favourable effect on the production and regulation of female reproductive hormones, all of which are crucial for fertility health.
Acupuncture Boosts Blood Circulation and Egg Quality
A woman’s egg quality is almost entirely dependent on the quality of blood circulating, which carries hormones and nutrients to the ovaries themselves where eggs develop. Egg quality is important for fertility because it determines embryo quality. Good embryo quality is responsible for a higher rate of successful pregnancies. This is particularly crucial for IVF, during therapies like IVF where the number of follicles and eggs are artificially increased, poor blood circulation can deprive these follicles and eggs of the required nutrients and oxygen, resulting in fewer good-quality eggs available for transfer.
By stimulating certain points in the body, Acupuncture is able to increase blood flow to the ovaries and uterus, which in turn can result in an improvement in a woman’s egg quality. According to research, Acupuncture is able to increase blood flow by relaxing the walls of blood vessels. In a recent study, individuals who underwent Acupuncture had considerably more developed eggs than those who received a placebo Acupuncture session.
Acupuncture Facilitates Embryo Implantation
Acupuncture is also able to assist in increasing embryo implantation rates. This is supported by a growing body of research; for instance, a recent systematic review of clinical trials indicated that Acupuncture dramatically enhanced clinical pregnancy rates in individuals with a history of two or more unsuccessful IVF cycles.
Embryo implantation relies on several conditions, including enough blood supply to the uterus. As previously mentioned, Acupuncture may boost blood flow to the reproductive organs, and research has shown that excellent blood flow to the uterus prior to egg extraction is connected with increased IVF conception rates.
Additionally, a robust immune system is essential for implantation. In rare instances, immune system abnormalities hinder the embryo from implanting in the uterus. Numerous studies have demonstrated that Acupuncture can assist in regulating the immune system and its functions.
Acupuncture Enhances the Quality and Quantity of Sperm
It has been shown in clinical studies that Acupuncture improves sperm quality and quantity in males with low sperm count, which is significant given that up to 45% of infertility cases are at least partially caused by low male fertility.
Some fertility specialists feel that IVF can overcome male infertility as long as the man has some sperm, particularly when employing a specific fertilisation procedure called Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). Nonetheless, ICSI pregnancy rates are comparable to those of traditional IVF.
IVF/ICSI may not resolve all male reproductive concerns since it cannot increase sperm quality; it can only choose the sperm with the best appearance for injection into the egg. As the embryo is composed of 50% of the mother’s DNA and 50% of the father’s DNA, if the quality of the sperm is low, the quality of the ensuing embryo will also be poor, and it may not implant.
Preliminary studies into the benefits of Acupuncture on male fertility has revealed that treatment can positively influence sperm parameters, including concentration, motility, vitality, and count. In addition, some research shows that Acupuncture treatment of male partners improves IVF fertilisation rates, and therefore may lead to more fertilised eggs(embryos) that may be used in IVF transfers.
Acupuncture may potentially regulate testosterone levels, according to the results of several studies. For optimal sperm production, it is essential for a male partner to have appropriate testosterone levels.
Acupuncture Lowers Stress and Anxiety
Anxiety and stress, which are frequent in infertility patients, can be improved with Acupuncture. For some couples, a diagnosis of infertility can cause extreme stress, which only makes the process that much more difficult. Stress is known to significantly decrease the likelihood of conception due to its impact to:
- Disrupt reproductive hormones
- Diminish sperm quality and quantity
- Shortens menstrual cycles and
- Increases the likelihood of miscarriage
Multiple studies have demonstrated that Acupuncture helps alleviate anxiety and tension in infertile patients by reducing cortisol levels, which is the body’s primary stress hormone.
Getting Started with Fertility Acupuncture
Given that fertility is as much related to males as it is to females, it is best that your practitioner sees both partners where possible in order to fully assess the health of each parent-to-be and set out a preconception care plan.
It is vital to remember Acupuncture is not an “instant” solution. Acupuncture for Fertility is a comprehensive approach to enhancing a couple’s chance of conceiving as it often involves the need to enhance overall health. This is because the function of natural treatments such as Acupuncture is to enhance the condition of the reproductive system, and both sperm and eggs require three months to develop to maturity.
Always begin treatment with your desired goal in mind, but be patient with the process; the results will take time to obtain, but will be long-lasting thanks to an increase in overall health. To completely assist our patients through their fertility journey, we frequently continue Acupuncture therapy throughout the conception process, whether natural or through IVF, and in some cases, throughout pregnancy.
What To Expect At Your Initial Appointment
On arrival for your Initial Appointment, you will be asked to fill out forms that will help to identify your overall state of health, medical history, concerns and goals. Then within your appointment, your practitioner will address your main health concern, diagnose the cause of the problem and set out a personalised preconception care plan before getting started with treatment in order to maximise fertility outcomes for you and your partner.
This approach to enhancing your fertility health will help you to feel energetic, calm, collected and in control of your overall health and fertility and most importantly ready to conceive.
The Benefits of Acupuncture for Fertility
Acupuncture is a holistic approach to enhancing conception chances, rooted in age-old methods that align with modern understanding. The benefits include:
- Improved Blood Flow: Acupuncture increases circulation to the ovaries and uterus, ensuring healthier ovarian follicles and a robust uterine lining.
- Hormonal Balance: It helps regulate crucial reproductive hormones such as Progesterone, Oestrogen, and Follicle Stimulating Hormone, providing a conducive environment for conception.
- Enhanced Egg Quality: Through boosting ovarian blood circulation, Acupuncture can lead to the production of higher quality eggs, crucial for successful pregnancies.
- Supports Embryo Implantation: Studies have shown that Acupuncture can increase embryo implantation rates by enhancing uterine blood supply and regulating immune system functions.
- Male Fertility Boost: For men, Acupuncture has been shown to improve sperm parameters, including concentration, motility, vitality, and overall count.
- Stress Reduction: Acupuncture effectively alleviates anxiety and stress by lowering cortisol levels.
Considering these advantages, it’s clear that Acupuncture for fertility provides an integrative path to address both male and female fertility concerns, setting the stage for a successful conception journey.
Are You Thinking Of Trying To Conceive?
If you have been trying to conceive and are looking for ways to improve your fertility health and conception outcomes, please get in touch with us on (02) 4709 6727 or by booking an appointment online to discuss how we can help.
