Can Acupuncture Help Fertility?

In short, yes! How? Well, if you’re looking for a very western understanding of the body and what acupuncture can do, to put it simply, acupuncture stimulates the nervous system influencing the production of hormones and neurotransmitters. This enables the body’s ability to self-regulate the homeostatic systems, encouraging it’s natural healing abilities. It has been shown to increase the blood flow to the uterus and ovaries to optimise endometrial lining and egg production. 

Chinese Medicine is a whole system of diagnosis (this is NOT ‘dry needling’) and often the language used to describe the body and it’s systems is unfamiliar to many of my patients. It’s much more poetic and resonates with me and many of the women I treat on a deeper level. I will often use points to strengthen a vessel known as the ‘Bao Mai’ for example, a channel of energy that connects the Heart directly to the Uterus, if the Heart is unsettled (and lets face it, sometimes TTC isn’t as stress free as we’d like) then the Uterus in turn will be affected. If the Heart is calm and still, likewise the Uterus. There are so many examples of stressed out couples TTC desperately with no joy, they give up, go on holiday, make other plans (calm their Heart/Bao Mai) and then manage to conceive. There are many, many more diagnoses to be made in Chinese Medicine, often more complex and physical than Heart/Uterus disharmony and untangling the issues faced by the men and women I see requires in-depth detective work on my part. But, acupuncture can be an incredible and often transformative route to natural conception and prepping the body for a healthy pregnancy.  

Questions? Feel free to email me and I will do my very best to answer them. IVF? Keep your eye’s peeled for my next blog on acupuncture and IVF, or get in touch if you’d like to know more and can’t wait until then