Acupuncture and IVF - Infertility Message Board

tikichic11 · 09-27-2005, 03:32 PM

Good afternoon everyone. My DH and I will be trying our 2nd IVF at the 1st of the year and I was wondering if anyone has any experience with using acupuncture in conjunction with the IVF. There was an interesting article on Fox.com yesterday talking about it and how it has shown some promising results. I've emailed a friend of mine who is going to school for acupuncture to ask her about this but wanted to see if any of you have had any real experience. I'm a big believer in alternative medicine...

rojo6pak · 09-27-2005, 11:52 PM

Well hello, I can't say that I used that technique during my IVF, but if you go to Sept/Oct IVF you may want to read QT314 posts. She just did her E/R and right before had acupuncture. She's a very nice lady, you may want to read her posts..Good luck to you and lots of baby dust your way

qt314 · 09-28-2005, 10:46 AM

Hey Tiki!
Remember me?

Anyway....rojo is right. However I'm heading to my accupunture appointment the day before my egg transfer (accu on thur, e/t on friday). I've also read on another baby website that indeed it is true. They did some sort of study and found that the chances were greater after accupuncture. It feeds more blood to the uterus and is supposed to help with make the eggs 'stick'. I'll take any advantage I can get!

I didn't do this the first time, but had heard about it. I spoke to my nurses and they even had a card to give me. So they recommend it, but only when asked about it if you know what I mean.

Hope that helps!
-stacey

tikichic11 · 09-29-2005, 08:29 AM

Stacie (QT) I do remember you and it's nice to see a familiar face

I just got back on the board.

There was a nice article about acupuncture on Fox online and it got me thinking. I've never done acupuncture before but I'm willing to give anything a try to make the next time successful. They even talked about the protocol...30 min before and 30 min after transfer and throughout the process as a means of relaxation and to provide good blood flow to the ovaries and uterus.

So, how does it all work? Does she come to you or do you go to her? Can any of it be covered by insurance? Does it help with any of the hormone side effects?

qt314 · 09-29-2005, 09:05 AM

Hey Tiki!

It may actually be covered by insurance, provided you have good insurance. I have really lousy insurance so it's not covered.

This particular accupunturist wanted to do it 2 days in advance. I had also been told to do it the morning of transfer, but this isn't what this accupuncturist believes. I'll ask her again tonight (she told me originally, I just don't remember her answer - she does however do a lot of accupunture-before-transfer appointments). I go tonight and have my transfer tomorrow morning at 10:30. I'm going to ask her if it helps prior to e/r with side effects and providing more blood to the eggs hopefully providing more or better eggs.

I'm figuring....if it helps in just the slightest...then it's worth it!