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Fertility

Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine can be used to treat those who have been diagnosed with certain conditions or those who merely want some help to achieve natural conception.

Common factors that risk fertility:

  • Age
  • Emotional factors: depression and stress
  • Environment/occupational factors: excessive and prolonged exposure high temperature, pesticide, toxic heavy metals, chemicals, radiation, heavy electromagnetic or microwave emissions, etc.
  • Alcohol
  • Smoking
  • Caffeine
  • Body mass index: being overweight and being underweight
  • Medications: antidepressants, chemotherapeutic agents, ibuprofen (if taken chronically), etc.

How can acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine influence infertility?

Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine affect the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Ovarian Axis, thus balancing hormones. Meanwhile, treatments help improve ovarian function, promote ovulation, increases blood flow to the uterus, thicken the endometrial lining, which also gives a better chance of embryo implantation.

For male, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine have shown that they can affect hormone levels and testicular blood flow. Chinese herbal medicine, in particular, offers a significant improvement in sperm count, motility, morphology and liquefaction, it can also treat varicocele and anti-sperm antibody.

Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine can help infertility due to:

For female:

  • Natural conception
  • Unexplained infertility
  • Irregular periods
  • Amenorrhea / Absent periods
  • PCOS
  • Endometriosis
  • Low AMH
  • Luteal phase defect
  • High prolactin / Hyperprolactinemia
  • Annovulation
  • Uterine Fibroids
  • Ovarian dysfunction
  • Recurrent miscarriage
  • Fallopian tube blockage

For male:

  • Low sperm count
  • Poor motility
  • Poor morphology
  • Liquefaction problem
  • Low testosterone
  • Varicocele
  • Anti-sperm antibodies

Current World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines for assessing male infertility are:

  • Volume: more than 1 ml
  • Count: more than 20 million sperm per ml
  • Motility: more than 50% moving vigorously and purposefully
  • Morphology: more than 14% normal forms (i.e. no deformities of the head, mid piece or tail)

When should the treatment start?

It takes at least 3 months for immature eggs to mature enough to be released at ovulation, and it takes the same amount of time for sperm to be developed mature. Therefore, at least 3 months should be given to prepare for conception.

Further reading – Fertility & IVF archive