Why does Acupuncture help women with infertility?
Acupuncture can be a very useful tool for helping couples conceive a beautiful, healthy child. Regular acupuncture treatments can help women balance their hormone levels, relax the uterus for easier implantation of the embryo and improve blood flow to the reproductive organs during IVF or IUI. Moreover, acupuncture can treat disorders that may cause infertility such as PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian syndrome), ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome, high FSH, low testosterone, poor sperm quality, estrogen dominance, hypothyroid, recurrent miscarriage, endometriosis, fibroids, and premature ovarian failure.
Connections between infertility and allergies:
More and more people develop allergies during the year. The imbalanced immune function not only causes people to be prone to allergies but also leads to infertility. In order to let the embryo grow inside the uterus, the immune functions have to be balanced. If the immune system is hyperactive, the body can produce antibodies to attack the embryo causing infertility and miscarriages. Anti-histamines have the potential to cause unhealthy eggs or sperm leading to possible miscarriage or deformed fetus. If you currently have allergies such as running nose, hives, and sinusitis, Boca acupuncturists will help you restore the balance in your body, so you can better be able to conceive a healthy baby.
Why should you choose Boca Acupuncture if diagnosed with an unknown infertility?
Boca Acupuncturists have been working with hundreds of women from Boston, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Lake Worth, Coconut Creek, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach Gardens, Coral Springs, Deerfield Beach, Parkland, Pompano Beach, and Weston for the past 20 years. Every time a new patient arrives, the acupuncturist at Boca and Boston Acupuncture clinic will try to figure out what could possibly cause the infertility and how the acupuncturist can help the couples with infertility problems. One of the important factors is that estrogen is not balanced with progesterone. The imbalanced estrogen can lead to fibroids, endometriosis and irregular periods. Acupuncture helps improve the ovarian and uterus function and reduce stress, so that the ovaries and adrenal gland can produce more progesterone to balance the estrogen. Acupuncture can also reduce the stress so the energy can go to your ovaries and uterus to improve their function. When estrogen and progesterone are balanced, a couple can get pregnant with a healthy baby. Boca and Boston Acupuncture clinic also teaches women how to change their diet and lifestyle so more energy can focus on their reproductive system. Furthermore, Boca Acupuncture will teach you how to combine acupressure with meditation to reduce your acupuncture visits and make you conceive as soon as possible.
Why does high prolactin cause infertility?
The high prolactin level can also contribute to infertility. When a woman has high prolactin level, her thyroid function may become abnormal and her estrogen and progesterone can be out of balance. Males who have high levels of prolactin, can develop erectile dysfunction and infertility. Pituitary tumor is one of the common reasons leading to high prolactin, which can cause vision problems and abnormal production of milk. High stress can also lead to high prolactin level and infertility. Chinese Scientist X.Y. Liu did research indicating that electro-acupuncture can lower the prolactin levels in rats and increases their pregnancy rate. Boca and Boston Acupuncture have been treating many women with high level of prolactin related infertility.
When you combine acupuncture with Chinese herbs, both women and men can restore their hormone balance and improve their thyroid and adrenal gland function much faster than just using acupuncture itself. Furthermore, women have improved ovarian and uterus function and they have fewer chances to develop depression and anxiety after their babies are born.
Why does acupuncture help infertility caused by auto-immune disease?
Boca Acupuncture designs specific infertility protocol to use acupuncture to balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, which help balance the immune function. When women are diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, MS and fibromyalgia, they produce auto-antibodies that not only attack their own tissues but also their fetus. When you have acupuncture at Boca Acupuncture, you will notice that your autoimmune condition will be improved once you get pregnant.
Women from the Northeast part of the US (Boston, Weston, Dover, West Wood, Dedham, Needham, Wellesley), and the FL Gold Coast part of the US (Weston in South Broward all the way north to North Palm Beach) came to the acupuncture clinic in Boca Raton and complained that there was nothing wrong with their hormones, ovaries and uterus. They just could not get pregnant. The very likely reason could be the imbalance of the immune function, especially when they are under a lot of stress. The human body is not programmed to cope with long term stress. We need to reduce the stress level periodically by doing acupuncture once a week, meditation every day or simply do deep breathing for 20 minutes before you go to sleep or when you wake up. Stress can also lower your progesterone level, which may contribute to the increasing rate of autism in modern society, because insufficient progesterone can be related with abnormal development of the babies’ brain. Allergies, cancer, auto-immune disease, inflammation, ED and Macular degeneration can also get worse because of high stress which is why acupuncture can be used to help so many kinds of medical conditions.
Dr. Li Zheng and Dr. Changhong Zhou of Boca Raton and Boston Acupuncture Clinics have over 30 years of clinical experience using acupuncture to treat women and men’s infertility in Boston, MA and Boca Raton, FL areas. For their work in infertility acupuncture, they have been profiled by WCVB Channel 5’s show, Chronicle.
Below are some frequently asked questions about acupuncture for infertility?
How many couples with infertility have you helped get pregnant?
Over the past 25 years, Li Zheng and Changhong Zhou have been practicing in the Boston MA and Boca Raton, FL areas, we have helped a couple of hundred women give birth to healthy babies. Women of all ages with underlying infertility problems have come to me for help. I have successfully treated women as old as 46, including severe endometriosis, premature ovarian failure and PCOS. I have even helped a number of women with re-opened ligated tubes get pregnant with acupuncture and Chinese herbs! My advisor, Dr. Guo Zhiqiang used only Chinese herbs to get a 56 year old woman to deliver a healthy baby. If you have infertility and tried IVF and IUI many times, or you are preparing for donor’s egg, try Boca acupuncturists, you may get pregnant within a few months, which can save you thousands of dollars for attorney and donor’s egg fee. You also reduce so much stress and hormone injection, which may bring you early menopause.
When should I start acupuncture treatments for infertility during IVF and IUI?
You should start acupuncture treatments at least 3 months before you plan to conceive, whether naturally or through IVF and IUI. Acupuncture helps bring more blood flow to your uterus and ovaries, increasing the likelihood of a successful implantation. It takes at least three months to develop very healthy eggs with balanced hormones. Women with a healthy lifestyle did get pregnant within one or two months when they tried acupuncture treatment in Boca and Boston clinics, even though they were told they would have premature ovarian failure and would have menopause pretty soon.
How often should I come for acupuncture if I am diagnosed as infertility? How long will it take before I get pregnant?
I generally recommend patients come 1-2 times a week, because the effects of acupuncture are incremental and cumulative. If a woman is diagnosed with fibroids, endometriosis or premature ovarian failure (organic problems), it will take more than 3 months to balance the hormones and improve the function of their ovaries. If you have only functional problems or high stress, you can become pregnant within one or two months even after many miscarriages. I recommend reading my book, Acupuncture and Infertility in www.lulu.com. I have a few cases in which women have premature ovarian failure and were ready to have donor’s eggs. Instead they used acupuncture and herbs, and got pregnant within two months without IVF or IUI. During the Pandemic, we have time to meditate, practice acupressure and acupuncture. It is much easier to overcome infertility problems if we choose the right lifestyle with optimal attitude.
In my experience, it takes between 2 to 12 months of acupuncture for most women to get pregnant with a healthy baby depending on the individual’s age and general health. If a woman combines acupuncture and herbs, they can get pregnant much faster.
Should I continue acupuncture treatments during pregnancy?
Yes. Although acupuncture can be done during the entire course of the pregnancy, I recommend my patients to continue acupuncture until at least 12 weeks into their pregnancy. Acupuncture treatments can help lower the rate of miscarriages, which is particularly important during the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy when the placenta is not well developed. Recently Boca acupuncture noticed that women can develop autoimmune disease and miscarriage, even though they carried babies into 12 weeks. Balancing your immune function is the key to fight infertility and even Covid-19 infection.
How does acupuncture help women to fight depression after delivery of their babies?
After women deliver healthy babies, their progesterone level dropped sharply. The hormone imbalance can lead to anxiety, depression, insomnia and even panic attacks. Acupuncture can quickly help their bodies produce more progesterone, serotonin and endorphin to fight post partum depression. Furthermore, Electro Acupuncture can help women tone their stomach muscles, so they will lose weight faster with more balanced hormones.
Does acupuncture help ED and improve the sperm quality?
Acupuncture can optimize the testosterone level and improve the function of pituitary and testicles. The Boca and Boston Acupuncture Clinics help some couples with very low and poor quality sperm get pregnant within a few months. If your husband has to go through surgery to cut the testicles and get the sperm, please try acupuncture in Boca or Boston to improve the successful rate.
Acupuncture for Infertility
Infertility is becoming more common problem in this modern world. But unfortunately, it is a painful reality for couples who desperately want to be parents. It is an umbrella term that is defined as a medical situation where a person is unable to conceive naturally within a year. In 35 percent of couples affected with infertility, both men and women can have issues. With the progression of medical science, we have seen much advancement in the field of fertility treatment. In vitro, in vivo fertilization, surrogacy, IUI, etc. are all becoming common remedies to help couples become parents. While the success rate has increased, the western medical fraternity and even high-tech reproductive specialists are resorting to acupuncture as a complementary treatment to the new-age infertility treatments because researches have verified that acupuncture can increase the IVF successful rate and reduce the side effect of the artificial hormones, especially for women with cancer in the past.
How acupuncture can help infertility?
Acupuncture is the traditional Chinese way of treating various medical conditions. In this technique, an expert acupuncturist inserts very thin and small needles in specific areas of the body. This, in turn, helps to remove the blockage and stimulate blood flow. The main focus of acupuncture is to remove the blockage, maintain the balance of hormones in the body, and boost blood flow in different body parts and organs, including the reproductive organs.
Acupuncture is a painless procedure where tiny and thin needles are placed in a specific pattern across the body from head to toe, giving stimulation to the vital energy points. This technique aims to bring a total spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical harmony in the body. The technique not just focuses on a particular condition; rather it focuses on making the overall functions of the body better and more efficient.
Acupuncture and a Recent Study
In a scientific study published on April 2002, in the reproductive journal Fertility and Sterility, a group of German researchers carried out a study on 160 women. In one group, 80 women received two sessions of 25 minutes each of acupuncture treatment. In the other group of 80, no acupuncture was given. The result showed that the group that received acupuncture had 34 pregnancies as compared with 21 women who received only IVF. Hence, the study affirmed that adding acupuncture to the traditional IVF treatment protocols could substantially increase the success of pregnancy in women who are undergoing fertility treatment.
However, certain conditions like blocked fallopian tubes or a fibroid tumor cannot be cured with acupuncture, rather it needs surgery to correct the problems. Acupuncture can be used to prevent the fibroids and endometriosis from coming back. If you’re concerned about safety, then let us assure that acupuncture is a safe procedure without any side effects. All needles used are sterile, nontoxic, and are labeled for single use.
Summary: For couples struggling with fertility issues, and undergoing IVF treatments, acupuncture has proved to be a successful complementary treatment. Studies show that using acupuncture can significantly increase the chance of conceiving for women going through fertility treatments.
Case Study
When women get pregnant, the immune function must be somewhat suppressed to allow the fetus grow inside the uterus. If a woman’s immune function is not balanced, their bodies will attack the fetus in the very early stages of pregnancy, causing unsuccessful implantation, miscarriage, or, in some cases, the fetus simply stops growing with a decreasing heartbeat. If the woman has an autoimmune disease, the immune system is out of balance and she is very likely to have different problems during pregnancy. Here is the story about how imbalanced immune function can lead to miscarriage even when a woman reached the 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Nancy was born in Boca Raton, Florida and went to a professional school in Delray Beach. With her hard work, she built up a very successful business in West Palm Beach. She got pregnant quite easily when she was 29 years old and delivered a healthy boy in Boca Raton Regional Hospital. She has been extremely busy with her successful business, drinking coffee frequently to make herself more energized with less sleep. The lack of sleep makes her immune function hyperactive and lowered her progesterone level with insufficient adrenal and ovarian function.
When her son was 2 years old, she and her husband were ready to have another child. Nancy never took birth control pill, she got pregnant very easily, but she lost her baby 5 times. It appears that the fetus stopped growing at the 6th or 7th week. The 6th pregnancy stopped at 12th week of pregnancy even though the baby was seen quite normal at week 7th. She started having swelling all over her body when she was 10 weeks pregnant. Her auto-antibody went up and started attacking her own kidney and the placenta. When she went to her OBGYN for checking up, the baby lost heartbeats and she was told the baby stopped growing at week 9th. She started bleeding at 12th week of pregnancy and had a DNC right after. It takes a few weeks to reduce her body swelling and restore her kidney function. This pregnancy made her very depressed. She developed insomnia and was diagnosed with lupus later on. She was told her immune function is hyperactive. Furthermore, in the two years after her 6th miscarriage, she could not get pregnant.
Finally she decided to start acupuncture treatment at Boca Acupuncture clinic. Her acupuncturist analyzed her symptoms and suggested balancing her immune function first. She started practicing meditation to reduce her daily stress during acupressure on certain acupuncture points. She stopped drinking coffee and eating any food to induce histamine. She has been trying to use acupuncture twice a week for 6 weeks, and her sleep has become deeper and she can relax within 10 min after deep breathing. Her leg swelling is gone. Her acupuncturist told her once her auto-antibody becomes normal, she should be able to conceive a healthy body. She will try to improve her ovarian and uterus function by doing acupuncture and acupressure for the next few weeks.