Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine to Enhance Male and Female Fertility

I love treating fertility issues naturally with acupuncture and herbs.  Chinese Medicine offers many solutions that Western medicine does not consider when assessing fertility to enhance male and female fertility.  Oftentimes, fertility can be improved with common sense solutions that involve nutrition, lifestyle and decreasing stress levels in both partners.  It may take 3 – 6 months and in some cases a year when treating a pre-existing gynecological condition , but it is a lot less expensive and there are no harmful side effects.

Many women are waiting until their late thirties to start conceiving and they are quickly referred to a Reproductive Endocrinologist solely based on their age, without considered other aspects of their health, vitality or other solutions.  I always suggest acupuncture and herbal treatments before going down the road of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) that comes with many risks to the mother and the baby’s future health.  Of course, acupuncture can be used along with ART. In fact I am including a study from the medical Journal of Fertility and Sterility with research that shows acupuncture significantly increases the success rate of embryo transfers.  I absolutely believe that this is a couple personal decision, and I support them to do their research to make an informed choice.  I simply want couples to know there are options, natural solutions to many fertility issues.  Even from a Western research standards, acupuncture has proven to be beneficial to male and female fertility issues.

Fertil Steril. 2002 Apr;77(4):721-4.

Influence of acupuncture on the pregnancy rate in patients who undergo assisted reproduction therapy.

Paulus WE, Zhang M, Strehler E, El-Danasouri I, Sterzik K.

Department of Reproductive Medicine, Christian-Lauritzen-Institut, Ulm, Germany.

Comment in:

1. Fertil Steril. 2002 Oct;78(4):891; author reply 892.
2. Fertil Steril. 2006 May;85(5):1359-61; discussion 1368-70.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of acupuncture on the pregnancy rate in assisted reproduction therapy (ART) by comparing a group of patients receiving acupuncture treatment shortly before and after embryo transfer with a control group receiving no acupuncture. DESIGN: Prospective randomized study. SETTING: Fertility center. PATIENT(S): After giving informed consent, 160 patients who were undergoing ART and who had good quality embryos were divided into the following two groups through random selection: embryo transfer with acupuncture (n = 80) and embryo transfer without acupuncture (n = 80). INTERVENTION(S): Acupuncture was performed in 80 patients 25 minutes before and after embryo transfer. In the control group, embryos were transferred without any supportive therapy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Clinical pregnancy was defined as the presence of a fetal sac during an ultrasound examination 6 weeks after embryo transfer. RESULT(S): Clinical pregnancies were documented in 34 of 80 patients (42.5%) in the acupuncture group, whereas pregnancy rate was only 26.3% (21 out of 80 patients) in the control group. CONCLUSION(S): Acupuncture seems to be a useful tool for improving pregnancy rate after ART.