My husband and I started trying to conceive at the beginning of 2018. After a few years of being married, both of us finally being on board with starting a family, and with me turning 37 in September, we could not delay any longer. However, after 6 months of trying unsuccessfully and with a diagnosis of Diminished Ovarian Reserve (DOR), I knew I needed additional assistance if I wanted to have a baby.
LEARNING ABOUT ACUPUNCTURE FOR FERTILITY FROM SEX AND THE CITY
I first heard about acupuncture being an alternative method to boost fertility from watching Sex and the City. In the episode “The Domino Effect”, Charlotte learns about acupuncture from Bitsy Von Muffling who had recently married cabaret singer, Bobby Fine. Bitsy explains how she was given up the hope that she would get pregnant after the IUIs and IVF failed. However, she tried acupuncture with Dr. Mao or “Dr. Wow” as she calls him and got pregnant.
Before seeing this episode, I was not aware that acupuncture could increase fertility and although I was not dealing with infertility at the time, it was something I always kept in the back of my mind just in case. Since then I had heard from some friends that acupuncture had helped them conceive so I knew it was something I needed to consider.
GETTING OVER MY ANGST OF ACUPUNCTURE
At first, I was quite nervous about getting an acupuncture treatment. The idea of having lots of needles all over my body did not sound relaxing or pleasant at all. However, the more I started researching infertility treatments, especially IVF, the more I decided that acupuncture sounded significantly better than all the shots, medication and the egg retrieval you go through with IVF. Being the researcher that I am, I decided to read about the benefits of acupuncture and the more I read, the more convinced I became that it might help and was at least worth a try.
During my research into acupuncture, I learned how it can help with infertility in both men and women. For men, acupuncture can help improve sperm count, motility and abnormality, lower stress levels, and improve hormone levels. For women, acupuncture can help improve follicle count and quality (which was the most important thing to me), lower stress levels, regulate menstrual cycles and hormone levels, lower elevated FSH levels, alleviate side effects from the pharmaceuticals used in fertility treatments, and improve success rates of IUI and IVF.
HOW TO FIND AN ACUPUNCTURIST
Armed with this information I decided to move forward with acupuncture. I went online and did a search in Google for acupuncturists near me. Tons of practices came up, so many in fact that I was not sure where to start searching. So, I decided to do another search for “fertility acupuncture”. Luckily this narrowed the list significantly, plus I thought it made more sense to see someone who specialized in acupuncture treatments for fertility.
I read reviews online of all of the practices near me and quickly narrowed in on one that had all 5-star reviews. I went to the website and there was a page that talked about the facility and the acupuncturist. I loved what she wrote about her journey into acupuncture and she looked like a caring and sweet person. I instantly had a great feeling about this practice and decided to schedule an appointment.
If you live in the Chicagoland area, I see Ginette at Acupuncture Wellness and Fertility Clinic. I absolutely love her and you will too!
BEFORE YOUR FIRST APPOINTMENT
Before my first appointment, I was required to complete three new patient forms:
- New Patient History Form
- Women’s Fertility History Form
- Mandatory Disclosure & Informed Consent Form
I definitely recommend that you take the time to complete these before your appointment. Each form was multiple pages and took me a bit of time to finish. You do not want to be filling these out during your consultation appointment or you will miss valuable time discussing your aliments and situation.
THE ACUPUNCTURE CONSULTATION
My first appointment was a 90 minute appointment with a 30 minute consultation discussion followed by my first hour appointment.
When I arrived, I was greeted cheerfully by my acupuncturist. She offered me a seat and asked to see my New Patient Forms. We started off by going through the New Patient History Form. She used it to get a general sense of my health but she was quickly drawn to my Patient Profile Section that asked for you mark up a diagram with any areas of pain on your body. I had marked up most of the diagram and she asked me to elaborate on the pain I was experiencing.
For as long as I can remember, I have had bad back and neck pain and for the last two years I have been getting back massages every other week to help cope with the discomfort. In addition, I have had pain in my hips, back of my knee, sides of my calves, my ankles and feet, and I have had quite of bit of inflammation in my hands, wrists and elbows. She was shocked I could have so much pain at such a young age and we proceeded to discuss my diet.
In the past few years I had put on a lot of weight due to a considerable amount of stress at my job. When I get overwhelmed I crave sugar and binge eat something sweet. I was also eating a lot of healthy foods, but she thought the sugar in particular was causing a lot of my pain.
After discussing my current health situation, we moved on to discussing my fertility history. The results from our fertility testing, were of most interest to her. She explained that acupuncture can really help improve follicle count & quality so she thought it would be very beneficial for me. However, she did tell me that it would take 3-4 months of treatment for acupuncture to have much impact on my fertility. This is because growing eggs can be influenced by lifestyle, diet and treatment from 90-120 days before ovulation. She also recommended I modify what I eating and start a Paleo Diet. She said the healthy food would not only help me lose weight, but it would also provide the right nourishment to grow better quality eggs.
FIRST ACUPUNCTURE APPOINTMENT
Upon completing the consultation portion of my appointment, we moved into one of the two rooms to begin my treatment. She had me lay on my back and then began to place needles in my abdomen, chest, ankles, feet, wrists, hands, ears and one on my forehead between my brows. In addition to treating my infertility, she placed the needles to strategically assist with some of my back pain and my stress.
As I mentioned previously, I was really nervous that the acupuncture needles would hurt, but to my surprise they really did not. Acupuncture needles are very thin and when most of the needles went in I did not feel much. There were a few spots that were more sensitive, but even those only stung for a few seconds.
After she had inserted all the needles, my acupuncturist left the room to let me relax. With soothing music in the background, I decided to close my eyes, take slow and deep breaths, and let my mind wander to a peaceful place.
After 30 minutes of rest, my acupuncturist came back in and removed all of the needles. Normally this would be the end of the appointment, but since she did not have another appointment right after mine and because I had so much pain in my body, she suggested getting some additional treatment on my back.
She had me roll over onto my stomach and said she would put some additional needles in my lower back while she used a cup to sort of massage my upper back. To my surprise, my back felt amazingly better.
After my appointment was complete, she provided me with some recommendations on supplements I should take and we scheduled my next appointment.
WHAT I LOVE MOST ABOUT ACUPUNCTURE
The thing that surprised me most about acupuncture though was how beneficial it was for other aspects of my life beyond fertility. The first thing I noticed after my first appointment is how much it helped with my back pain. Within just a few weeks of acupuncture my back pain was mostly gone. It has also assisted tremendously with anxiety, stress, sleep, and sugar cravings. For me acupuncture has been life changing and has been one of the most critical pieces to feeling healthier. I highly recommend acupuncture to anyone who may be interested. In the end the benefits e outweigh any fear you may have.
MORE ARTICLES ABOUT MY INFERTILITY JOURNEY
My Infertility Journey – An Introduction
What to Expect at you Infertility Consultation and Testing with the OB/GYN
7 Important Lessons I Learned the Year
*Source: www.awfclinic.com
Leave a Reply