Looking for Help
After we had been trying about six months, I was researching ways to improve my fertility naturally. If you read this post, you know that my cycles were pretty off. I was ovulating super late in my cycle (about day 20 of a 27-day cycle). I was also having a lot of symptoms around the time of ovulation that just didn’t seem right. It didn’t take long in the internet to figure out that acupuncture was worth a shot. I saw lots of success stories and was very interested in trying it out.
I went to Tony and said, what do you think about trying acupuncture? He said absolutely, I will call her today. Tony has had some previous health issues that acupuncture literally cured and so he is a huge believer (long story for another time!) He called his acupuncturist and explained the situation. All she responded with was, “I will help your wife.”
What is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine that has been used for thousands of years. An acupuncturist inserts needles into specific points in your body to stimulate blood flow to organs, balance hormones, and relieve stress. Chinese herbs are generally suggested in addition to the treatments to optimize the results.
A lot of the difficulty that women have conceiving is because there are imbalances. Acupuncture can help restore balance into your body.
How Can Acupuncture Help Me?
Chinese medicine can address the following issues (that may affect your fertility):
- Irregular cycles
- No period
- Delayed ovulation / short luteal phase
- No ovulation
- Hormone imbalances
- Thyroid issues
- Ovarian Cysts
- Fibroids
- PCOS
Benefits for Women’s Fertility:
- Improve egg quality
- Regulate hormones and ovulation
- Improve circulation and blood flow to your uterus
- Thicken the uterine lining
- Reduce stress
First Session
I went in for my first session and was kind of terrified. First, I didn’t want needles stuck all over my body. Second, I was just so worried that it wouldn’t help and that she would tell me something I didn’t want to hear. She spent almost two hours with us, asking tons of questions and then doing the actual treatment. Her main concerns were my extreme abdominal pain during ovulation, extreme hot flashes at night, and my breast tenderness. These symptoms showed a hormone imbalance and “blockage” (her words). She sent me home with different herbs to take depending on my symptoms.
It’s Working!
I went to my second session, and again, she asked lots of questions and did another treatment. Literally the same day, I started having spotting. I was like whoa, she is really doing something with my hormones! Not that I wasn’t a believer before, but I just had no experience with this, so I didn’t really know if I would see effects?
I then went to a third and fourth acupuncture session. I told her about the spotting and she said that was good! It meant I was getting rid of the blockages and old blood. The fourth session was on cycle day 10 for me. The next day on cycle day 11, I took an ovulation test in the morning and it was showing a high LH surge! I woke up Tony (he was still sleeping) and was so excited! I could not believe it. She literally moved my ovulation up by 8 days in 4 sessions. We finally felt hope.
Regular Sessions
I continued to go to acupuncture once a week. I began ovulating midway through the cycles, which was much better than before. I also hardly had any symptoms during ovulation, and when I did have symptoms I took the herbs. We kept going once a week (our acupuncture tab was really starting to add up!) Our acupuncturist said it was unlikely we would get pregnant until 3 completely “normal” cycles, so we kept going weekly, waiting for our time to get pregnant. Once the symptoms virtually went away, I began going to acupuncture just twice a month.
Pregnant!
After about 9 months of acupuncture we got pregnant. It’s hard to say whether acupuncture is the reason we got pregnant. I firmly believe it helped regulate my cycles and helped us to get pregnant. That being said, there is no real scientific proof that acupuncture can get you pregnant. Always need to have a disclaimer in there!
Fertility is a very complicated animal with a lot of different factors. Other things I did leading up to getting pregnant: I took B6 vitamins and Vitex, changed my diet, exercised more, eliminated toxic products, etc. etc. We also did three rounds of fertility drugs but did not do any the cycle we got pregnant.
I hope this was helpful! As always, let me know if you have any questions!