Acupunture and Infertility

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Acupuncture for Infertility

By Natural Fertility⋅

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Acupuncture is an alternative medical treatment that has been practiced for over 2000 years. Created in China, the practice of acupuncture is based on the belief that a disruption in the energy flow in the body can cause energetic imbalances, which is believed to be the root cause of most of the disorders suffered by people. These obstructions can be cleared and the energy flow of the body can be restored by the insertion of tiny needles into specific areas of the body. There are over 2000 different acupoints on the human body and the disease determines which insertion points should be used.
Acupuncture is now used around the world to treat a variety of conditions, such as osteoarthritis, infertility, smoking addiction, gastric hyperacidity, sciatica and low back pain.

How Does Acupuncture Treat Infertility?
The use of acupuncture to treat infertility is a comparatively new concept for western societies. The ideology behind acupuncture for infertility is that acupuncture will increase the amount of blood flow to the sexual organs and balance the hormones present in the body. This practice is proven to be effective by increasing ovarian potency in women and assisting in sperm creation for men.

Using acupuncture for infertility treatment is most commonly used when a couple is experiencing functional issues, such as erectile dysfunction or irregular ovulation. In some scenarios, acupuncture is used as supplementary procedure for in vitro fertilization, helping women to relax their uteruses during the embryo transfer process. A study conducted in 2002 by German researchers found that acupuncture increased the success rate of in vitro fertilization by up to 16% and reduced the amount of miscarriages in women receiving in vitro fertilization by 12%.

What is the Acupuncture Treatment Like?
Acupuncture is a pretty painless procedure and side effects are very uncommon. The most common adverse events reported include the transmission of infectious agents, minor bleeding at the insertion point and needles broken beneath the skin. These risks will be very much reduced if the acupuncturist is a licensed and capable professional that has gone through the required 2000 to 3000 hours of training and has passed the required board exam.

Acupuncture for infertility treatment can be a long-winded process. In most scenarios, acupuncture therapy requires 12 individual appointments, lasting about an hour in length and occurring weekly. During this hour long appointment, a physical test will be given and any complications or issues that have arisen since the last appointment will be discussed.

Using acupuncture to treat infertility is quickly gaining acceptance in the United States. Although whether the procedure is useful is intensely argued among doctors, the fact of the matter is that it seems to work and it certainly doesn’t hurt to try. For couples who have been trying to conceive a child without success, using acupuncture therapy to aid in infertility treatment may give them the breakthrough they need to finally have a baby.