Hello Everyone,
Has anyone ever tried acupuncture to treat IF?

In a nutshell there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with me or DH. We've been TTC for 3.5 years. The new IF clinic I will be going to offers acupunture, but I heard that sometimes it can take a few months to really work. It is covered with our insurance, but IF treatment (injectables & IUI) is not. I thought I'd try acupuncture, but don't really want to wait around longer than I have to before trying IUI. My DH and I are not getting any younger.

Heard any success stories?

Hi hi!! I am one of quite a few acupuncture advocates on the board!! To tell you how acupuncture has helped me so far is this.... I have had a number of small, everyday problems. Things I thought just come with working full time exec, and going home to be a full time wife, and dealing with IF as well. I was under LOADS of stress, had irregular BMs, lower back pains, and I hadn't had a period in 7 months (due to PCO).
After a few treatments (so abotu a week) my BMs were on time and normal (still are) and my lower back pain, which i had since college were gone (still are) After a couple of months (I have had irregular periods since I first got them----cycles ranging from days to months) I got my period, and they're prety much right on time every month. (I just have to go in for surgery to remove a Polyp, which is making my period WAAAAY to heavy)
So darling, yes acupuncture is AMAZING. My stress still goes up every once in a while, but a treatment takes care of that, and the effect last for a good couple of days. :angel:

There is an old Acupuncture thread that's buried around here. If I were ou, I'd dig it up, and do some reading ;) Good luck!!!!

********babydust*********

Hello,
I just wanted to say that accupuncture helped me too. It's helps your body relaxt and heal itself. I wish my insurance covered accupuncture:)

Thanks for the info. I'll have to try and find that old thread.

Other than helping with stress, does it do anything to infertility if there isn't a definite cause of IF? (Hope that made sense) I don't feel like I'm stressed about TTC. I don't know too much about acupuncture so I'm not familiar with how it works.

For sure!!! Even if you have unexplained IF, acupuncture can definitely help. See, teh whole thing with acupuncture is what the say about western midicine is that "Western medicine spends so much time looking at the vein of a single leaf, they miss the whole forest." So, everyhting could be perfectly fine with your ovaries, utuerus, DH's spermies....but maybe there is something 'wrong' with your stomach, for example. In chinese medicine, everything is connected, so parts of your body that seemingly have nothing to do with reproduction may actually be causing IF, or recurren m/cs. for example, I have low Kidney Essence. Which doesn't make a whole bunch of sense in western mind, but since you Kidneys are in charge of reproduction, in chinese medicine, it causes IF. Or, something liek, say recrring headaches, that could mean a low circulation, which in turn means that not enough Blood and Energy is getting to your womb, and it stays 'cold'. It might help if you look up in the internet. Good luck!!!

********babydust********

princess you are so right because i have seen 2 diffrent acupunturist and they both told me the same thing and that they say my stomach is not healthy and that could be causeing ivf and its funny they know this just by looking at my tongue but when i went last from me eating better and the treatments they say that it is getting better because of how my tongue its starting to look but if anyone else would look at my tongue i would think its fine its not like i have anything on it but i think that chinese medicine is amazing.

I think it's amazing too!! Just from one look at my tongue, adn feelign my pulse, they could tell me everythign that is wrong with me!! They said I have low Kidney Essence, and have Cold invading my body, which would explain my IF. I think Chinese medicine is amazing!! I think that if Western Medicine and Traditioanl Medicine woudl combine, we woudln't be dealing with IF :angel:

********babydust**********

you are right it would be amazing and not even that with acupunture you can cut out taking medication like it helps with high blood pressure and i dont like taking pills all the time and espically after it my cycle was looking normal again i hope it will make me have more mature eggs because when i do a cycle right i have alot of follicules put then when i do retreival i would have 9 or 10mature eggs but out of ten 8 will fertilize i want to see more because i want to do a 5day transfer instead of a 3day cycle.

I hope acupuncture helps yu too, Pam!!! I'm praying for lots of QUALITY eggs for you and your transfer!! :D:D:D I really thin acupuncture will help you :angel:

*********babydust***********

thank you so much for that i wanted to ask you how could they tell that your womb was cold.

They could tell that my womb was cold because of a combinatin of factors (you don't need to have these factors to have a cold womb, but here's mine) I have low Kidney essence, so not mouch energy goes around in me, and I have Cold invading my body. They could tell all of this by looking my tongue and checking my pulse. As well, I have PCO, which was a big tip for them :)

********babydust*********

thats why i say chinese medicine is a great thing i wish they would incorporate it with ivf that would help alot of women not go threw alot of heart ache. it is expensive if you dont have insurance my insurance only gives me a discount on it so i cant complain it saves me some money how often do you do your acupunture i am doing mine once a month if i did it twice a week it will be to costly for me.

This is all really interesting. My RE just phoned to ask if I wanted acupuncture after my upcoming transfer (assuming the eggs stay healthy!). I was like, uh, no I don't think so. I know nothing about it or how it would help after my transfer. This would be my first transfer and I have never done acupuncture. Something to think about though. I will also search for the previous post on this...

M

hey marie you should really consider trying acupunture and the reason why they do it before and after it helps the uterus to stay in a relax state because you know our uterus does do little contractions and that can cause the embroyos not to stick.

Hi Pam,

It sounds like something I should definitely look into! I will call my RE back...

M

cmarie you should really look into it is worth it anything that wont hurt i will try and espically when it is increasing your chances and let me tell you it is the best after a session i am so relax and calm i even fall asleep during my sessions.

I have my first RE appt (with my new doc) tomorrow and will ask her if I should do acupuncture first before spending the money on meds. I sure hope so because it seems like perfect timing. My ins. pays for acu. treatments until Dec 31 but won't cover IF meds. Then in Jan I don't have acu. tx covered anymore (new insurance) but will have IF meds partially covered. It flip-flops. I hope it's God's sign that this is the right timing to restart IF tx.

I'm getting really excited about trying acupuncture.:D If not to get pregnant, but just to feel more relaxed. :cool:

Thanks Princess and Pam for the encouragment.

Oh that's great!!! You'll love it, I promise :angel: And if you use it to keep relaxed, who knows, that might be the key to your BFP! :D And I think it is a sign, dearest....I am so praying for the bfp!!

*******babydust***********

WOW, I never knew acupuncture could help so much, I am definitely going to look into it, it is also encouraging that an RE suggested it with IVF. I want to learn more, so I will check it out on the net. I will probably have tons of new questions so I will come back to you ladies for advice. thanks so much.

Oh, for sure!! I strongly believe that acupuncture is what got my AF coming again, and somewhat regularly (though a uterine polyp tends to mess with the schedule) because I wasn't doing anyhitng realy out of the ordinary :D And it has helped me in so many other areas of my life! :D Definitely check it out, Hopeful, and don't hesitate to ask any questions!!! :D

******************babydust************** ***********

i agree with princess you guys will love it because i love it i have been so stressed out this week and i missed my appt last week and i am stressed out so i am going to make sure i go this week when i was going every week nothing could bother me and i was so relaxed.

My RE told me that they don't do acupuncture IN the office but in their other office 2 hours away. :( But that she would give me names of local acupuncturists that tx IF. I'm still planning on trying acu. since insurance will cover it. Can't hurt, only help I think.

She also thinks I may have either a clotting issue or immunity issue that explains why I can't get pg. I'm not sure how I feel about that. At least I might get some answers as to why I can't get pg. and hopefully be able to get treatment.

hi pinkie your right acupunture wont hurt is is suppose to help as long as it wont hurt i wont mind it to much you know.

you said your doctor thinks has she taken any test on you?

hi pinkie your right acupunture wont hurt is is suppose to help as long as it wont hurt i wont mind it to much you know.

you said your doctor thinks has she taken any test on you?

Hi Pam,

I told my RE that I hardly ever get sick- my body will feel like it's starting to get sick (sore throat for a little while) then it never pans out to a full cold. I work in the hospital so my RE thinks I may have a "super immune system". She tested me for the usual FSH, T3,T4, TSH, LH, Estridiol... and some bizzare tests to check my clotting status, and immune status: anti-thyroglobulin, anticariolipin antibody, lupus antocoagulant, protein S and C deficiency, factor V leiden, prothrombin gene mutation and some other tests I've never heard of. She seemd pretty thurough, and determined to find the cause of my IF. I haven't received the results yet and pretty curious to find out. I did some research on the web about these tests and the tx seem to be prednisone or dexamethasone (cortico-steroids) and anticoagulant (for clotting problems). So at least there are things out there to "fix" the issue.

(I'm sorry moderators if this thread has gotten off topic of acupuncture.)

pinkie i am glad you have a re that is working really hard on trying to find out what is causing your infertility some women has re that never have a answer but they know how to talk about the next cycle for you to spend more money like my re she was like take out your tubes why would i do that when they say the dont see my tubes being the issue and if i ever decide to take 5 thousand dollars and take the clamps off i can try naturally and if i did that i have a higher chance of getting pg then doing ivf so i told her come up with something else because it wont happen.