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According to several recent studies, acupuncture treatments can increase the success of IVF by anywhere from 42% to 115% over IVF alone. Acupuncture is so helpful during IVF because it treats the underlying causes of fertility problems and actually increases your body’s ability to conceive and maintain a pregnancy naturally.

For best results, we recommend that a woman seek acupuncture and Chinese herbal treatment three months prior to beginning IVF. While three months may seem like a long time, especially after a lengthy battle with infertility, preparing for IVF in this way actually saves time and money by providing a stronger foundation for success. Because acupuncture improves your overall gynecological heath: regulates hormones, helps you produce more and higher quality eggs, and thickens the uterine lining, acupuncture and herbs greatly increase the chances that your first IVF cycle will be a success.

If you do not wish to or cannot wait three months to begin IVF, don’t worry. Many studies show that as few as two treatments (immediately before and after implantation) can dramatically improve your chances of success.

Once you have become pregnant, acupuncture can help maintain a healthy pregnancy by preventing miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. Acupuncture is a natural and safe way of ensuring a healthy and gentle pregnancy.

Treating Stress without Medication

The American Institute of Stress estimates that between 75 and 90 percent of visits to primary care physicians in the United States are motivated simply by stress.  Stress can manifest as headaches, digestive problems, decreased immunity or autoimmune reactions, neck and back pain, high blood pressure, chest pain, insomnia, and anxiety and depression. Sometimes these symptoms represent only the tip of the iceberg of a serious condition which requires all the big guns of high tech medicine; more often, though, they are exactly what they look like, which is stress.  Once the possibility of a danergous underlying pathology has been eliminated, conventional medicine has little to offer in terms of treating stress, other than antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication.  While we are increasingly aware of the connection between stress and  the development of serious health problems which will eventually require expensive, high tech treatment, the prevention of chronic rather than infectious disease remains one of conventional medicine’s greatest weaknesses.

Acupuncture in its pure form is the simplest, low-tech, broadest spectrum remedy for the most common health problems in America.

Adapted from The Remedy, Lisa Rohleder, L.AC