Growing your family can be such an exciting time, but it can be frustrating when things don’t go exactly as planned. If you’ve been trying for more than a year, you’ve likely moved into IUI (intrauterine insemination) or IVF (in vitro fertilization). Thankfully, we live in a time when we have these technologies available! However, they can be costly and success rates can vary. The good news? Research shows there are a few key things you can do to improve your chances of conceiving with IVF!
Acupuncture for IVF Research
A 2015 study demonstrated that women receiving Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) had a 61.3% chance of a live birth with IVF compared to 48.2% with usual care alone during IVF. Additionally, rates of biochemical pregnancies were substantially lower in the TCM group. That’s a huge difference!
In this study, participants benefitted from acupuncture once or twice per week leading up to the IVF procedure with an average of 12 visits throughout the process. Other studies have shown that even just receiving acupuncture on the day of the IVF transfer improves pregnancy rates. However, a more comprehensive treatment plan demonstrated even better efficacy and that is what we typically recommend at Affinity Acupuncture.
So what does it look like to add Traditional Chinese Medicine or acupuncture into your IVF plan?
Let’s start with your initial visit. At your first appointment, we’ll discuss your health history, fertility, lifestyle, and more. From there, we’ll come up with a customized treatment plan for you. For best results, we do recommend starting treatments early on in the IVF process. However, something is better than nothing so we can still work with you even if you’re short on time before your IVF cycle. Ideally, we love starting treatments 12 weeks before IVF. This gives us time to not only support your uterine lining health, stress levels, and pelvic blood flow but also improve egg quality!
Based on your individual case, we will recommend a customized treatment plan for treatment frequency as well as recommendations for supplements, nutrition, stress management, and more. Our goals throughout treatment include regulating cycles, improving pelvic blood flow, supporting egg quality and health, and managing stress levels. Our tools include acupuncture, electro-acupuncture, herbs, supplements, moxa, cupping, and more depending on what your unique situation requires.
What are the benefits of adding TCM and acupuncture for fertility?
Improve success of IUI or IVF
Increase blood flow to reproductive organs
Support egg quality and health
Support healthy uterine lining
Support implantation & early pregnancy
Regulate menstrual cycles
Balance hormones
Manage stress
Improve whole body health
Ready to get started?
Our new Integrative Fertility Program is designed just for you! An in-depth health consultation and customized treatment plan, 12 acupuncture visits, red light therapy, prenatal supplements, and more. All designed to give you the best chances of conceiving! The first step is to book a free discovery call.
