Acupuncture and Fertility! Let’s Talk Numbers
Let’s talk numbers about how acupuncture affects fertility! Figuring out your own fertility can feel like an uphill battle. 80% of infertility may be related to conditions like endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), but a good 20% is left inexplicable according to Western Biomedicine (WM). However, the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) model looks at conditions differently. Through the TCM lens, we look at the overall person and use a system called pattern diagnosis to determine how to help a person find their own individual balance. TCM diagnosis approaches the energetics of the body and organs, including meridians for the Kidney, Liver, Spleen, Heart, and Lung. We work within these meridian systems and cater our treatment to each individual person we meet.
The Facts and Figures!
Many studies have been done on the effectiveness of acupuncture in treating fertility and we’ve listed a couple below!
In a recent meta-analysis reviewing 40 randomized control trials, including over 4,000 women, Chinese herbal medicine was shown to improve pregnancy rates by two times as much as Western medical fertility drug therapy over a 3-6 month period. The overall outcome across these 40 studies was that Chinese herbal medicine achieved pregnancies 60% of the time where Western medical approaches achieved pregnancies only 33% of the time (Reid, 2015). That’s twice as many pregnancies using acupuncture! What a staggering difference!
Additionally, fertility indicators like ovulation rates, cervical mucus scores, appropriate thickness of the endometrial lining, and biphasic basal body temperature were all positively influenced by acupuncture and herbal medicine. In fact, it has been shown that there is an 18% chance of improved ovulation in women with previously anovulatory (not ovulating) cycles with Chinese Herbal Medicine as compared to the standard Western Medical approach (Reid, 2015)! The benefits acupuncture offers to the body are so great that it can help achieve a viable and healthy pregnancy!
And there’s more!….
In a study working with women experiencing fallopian tube blockage (hyperosalpingography), pregnancy rates were three times higher when treating with acupuncture as compared to treating with Western Medicine! Over a three month period, patients working with Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners saw a 52% boost in pregnancies as compared to patients following a Western Medical routine, where there was only an 18% increase in pregnancies. Also, tubal potency was restored in 78% of women in the TCM group and only 32% of women in the WM group (Pang et al).
Traditional Chinese Medicine Can Help Prevent Miscarriages
Not only can TCM help people get pregnant, it can also help maintain pregnancies to term. It has been found that TCM is 28% more effective than WM when it comes to continuing gestation beyond 28 weeks (Li L, et al).
Get Acupuncture!
We hope that your journey towards health will guide you toward this wonderful form of medicine. Warm Wishes! Naturna Institute
References
Li L, Dou L, Leung PC, Wang CC. Chinese herbal medicines for threatened miscarriage. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012;5:CD008510
Pang B, Pang Q, Song G. Clinical effect of Jiutengzhuyu tablets on promoting blood circulation in women with oviducal obstruction. J Tradit Chin Med 2012;32:549-53
Ried, K. (2014). Management of female infertility with traditional Chinese herbal medicine: An updated meta-analysis. Advances in Integrative Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.aimed.2014.10.025
