While pregnancy comes easily to many couples, it can be a challenge for many others. If you are unsuccessfully trying to conceive, you’ve likely considered many different strategies to boost your chances of a successful pregnancy.
Fertility acupuncture is an increasingly popular option for couples who want to use natural means to boost their chances of success before resorting to more drastic fertility treatments. Acupuncture is a natural practice that has been in use for thousands of years. It benefits of receiving acupuncture is safe to undergo treatments while trying to conceive.
Acupuncture techniques include inserting very thin needles into precise spots on the body to release endorphins and balance hormone levels in the body. Just as with any other fertility treatment, acupuncture is not a magical remedy that will definitely result in a pregnancy. However, it can have many beneficial effects on the body, creating more favorable conditions for conception. These benefits include:
- Improving egg quality: A healthy pregnancy must start with a healthy egg. Research has shown that acupuncture can help to increase high-quality egg rates and high-quality embryo rates for women with infertility and energetic kidney deficiency, which is a common symptom of polycystic ovarian syndrome. This condition can result in irregular or missed menstrual periods. Acupuncture can alleviate these symptoms, resulting in higher-quality eggs produced more regularly, a crucial necessity for a successful pregnancy.
- Improving sperm quality: Infertility can sometimes be attributed to one person in the relationship. But more commonly, we are seeing that both parties can have issues that negatively impact the ability to get pregnant. Up to 30% of fertility cases are related to a male’s sperm with no additional factors. Healthy, high-quality sperm is just as important as eggs when trying to conceive. The sperm are responsible for half of the genetic material of a growing embryo. Acupuncture can significantly improve sperm motility (or the ability to move) and sperm concentration. Several studies have verified that acupuncture can improve sperm quality and fertilization rates when used in conjunction with additional reproductive treatments.
- Balancing hormones: When one’s hormones are imbalanced, it can be very difficult to conceive. Acupuncture can improve the production of sex hormones and bring overall balance to the body’s hormones. It can help increase the production of estrogen, progesterone, prolactin, and other hormones essential to conception and pregnancy.
- Reducing the symptoms of pre-existing conditions: Many people who struggle with conception have underlying conditions, such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, and ovarian cysts. Acupuncture can reduce the symptoms of many of these conditions by helping periods achieve greater regularity, increasing and nourishing blood flow, and balancing hormones to improve the health of the uterus, and reducing the pain associated with some conditions. All of these benefits create more favorable conditions to achieve conception.
- Increasing IVF success: IVF can provide many infertile couples with a way to conceive when other options have been exhausted. But these treatments can be very hard on the body without guaranteeing success. Research has demonstrated that acupuncture can improve clinical pregnancy rates in women undergoing IVF and that it can help to improve IVF outcomes. After several acupuncture treatments, participants often experienced improved endometrial thickness, reduced stress, and improved patient satisfaction – all of which can improve the odds of getting pregnant.
While acupuncture has been shown to increase your odds of getting pregnant, it can also be beneficial to continue treatment throughout the pregnancy by keeping both mother and child healthy. The benefits of receiving acupuncture while pregnant include:
- Reducing the symptoms of morning sickness allows the mother to absorb the required nutrients that a growing embryo needs.
- Regulating the production of the hormone relaxin, which loosens joints during pregnancy. This benefit can reduce pelvic or back pain often experienced in the second and third trimesters.
- Reducing symptoms of depression that many new mothers experience after the delivery of a child.
- Acupuncture may also help babies turn if they are breech by stimulating acupuncture points BL67 and SI1 between 32 and 35 weeks. This treatment may result in the baby presenting headfirst for a less complicated delivery.
- Reducing labor pain.
- Increasing a newborn’s Apgar score, which measures health and vitality immediately after birth.
As you can see, the benefits of fertility acupuncture and pregnancy acupuncture are widespread. These treatments can help in some instances where traditional therapies and treatments have failed. Benefits can continue throughout the pregnancy to aid growth and development until birth. To learn more about the benefits of acupuncture for conception and pregnancy, contact MK Integrative Wellness today!
MK Integrative Wellness offers various natural and herbal medicine options that use naturopathic medicine principles, from consultations, acupuncture, customized herbal formulations, natural pain management, and more. Our team can help you to manage your health and wellness through natural and herbal medicine options proactively.