Our team has been offering fertility and pregnancy acupuncture for over 30 years combined experience and has additional skills, such as a postgraduate qualification in gynaecology, fertility and obstetrics acupuncture, naturopathy to degree level, nutritional advice up to Masters Level and personal IVF experience.

Their techniques have been developed by combining evidence-based research together with close collaboration, including those who have worked directly with international leaders in fertility acupuncture, such as Zita West and Jill Glover. Besides their important work supporting couples through IVF, our team also able to consider all the vital stages of childbirth from pre-conception to conception and pregnancy.

We know through personal experience over many years that the journey couples make can not only be fraught, but occasionally traumatic. We never underestimate the importance of meeting women or couples before starting treatment, so that you can ask some questions and see how you feel about us.

Have you seen your GP about your problems or difficulties?

There could be underlying medical problems linked to infertility, and it’s important that these have been considered before starting IVF support. Our team can go through the results or investigations you have already had to ensure that it is safe to proceed with fertility treatment.

What can we do to assist?

Although our team can work independently, our approach attempts to compliment other therapies, strategies or treatments you may receive as much as possible to maximise the opportunities for success and we use acupuncture to help a wide variety of problems that affect fertility. We aim to:

• Reduce stress levels and anxiety to aid conception
• Help identify factors contributing to infertility and sub-fertility
• Regulate menstrual cycles
• Address underlying conditions such as endometriosis, PCOS, PID
• Promote healthy eggs and healthy sperm to increase chances of conception
• Promote healthy pelvic blood flow and ovarian artery blood flow, which contributes to healthy ovarian function and therefore increased fertility
• Promote healthy sperm parameters, increasing sperm count, promoting healthy sperm morphology and motility
• Support and improve success rates of assisted fertility techniques such as IVF, ICSI and IUI

When should I start acupuncture treatment?

At least 3 months before you try for conception.

It takes approximately 3 months for an egg to mature and for new sperm to be produced, so it is essential that you allow a period of at least 3 months to address any issues and prepare for conception.

Do I need to bring anything along to my appointment?

Yes. Besides the general preparations for your first visit found here, there are also a few things that you should bring:

• Your partner (optional). Some women prefer to come on their own for the first few times, but it’s preferable if you are both happy to attend.
• You and your partner’s medical history.
• Your thoughts about any life events that you think may apply to your emotions and stresses/fears.

What happens when I attend, and what is involved?

We are trying to create the right environment for conception to occur so you can consider your treatment as the identification and targeting of the issues that prevent this from happening. Your first visit is therefore examining your journey so far, looking at what has been tried already, reviewing the results of any scans and tests, highlighting some issues we pick up on and explaining how we can help.

Women should be prepared to discuss their menstrual history and may be advised to record the Basal Body Temp each month (BBT) to identify ovulation and increase fertility awareness.
Both men and women may be given pre-conceptual advice, which may include nutritional and general lifestyle advice, and we may recommend other reputable medical professionals and complementary practitioners as part of the treatment plan, if this would be helpful.

Treatment

Once we understand your personal experience and situation, we will explain what care we feel will best support you. Treatment for fertility acupuncture may include weekly or fortnightly treatments with regular reassessments taking place to chart your progress and the effects that acupuncture is having. This is usually an uplifting experience as health improves.

With some types of problem, it may be more appropriate to see you at specific times, such as at certain stages in the menstrual cycle.

If you are having Assisted Reproduction Technique (ART), the most common examples are In vitro fertilisation (IVF), Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) and Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and our aim with acupuncture would be to assist you during your cycle by working alongside the medical teams. We can help naturally if you have conditions that can affect your cycle unfavourably, such as high FSH, poor egg quality, thin endometrial lining and poor sperm parameters.

We can use acupuncture to restore hormonal functioning by addressing underlying patterns of imbalance.

We can use acupuncture to improve blood flow to the ovaries and uterus. Increased blood flow means that blood full of oxygen and nutrients will enhance the function of the ovaries and will help to build healthy uterine lining.

We can work with individuals or couples closely when the cycle is started and advise on treatments depending on whether the woman is on down-regulation, stimulation, egg collection or embryo transfer.

Research

You may have read the research showing acupuncture helped women embarking on ART procedures and improved their chances of conceiving and carrying healthy children to term. Many studies are being conducted at various IVF clinics, which show that acupuncture improves IVF success rates.

A new analysis by the University of Maryland School of Medicine suggests that women who undergo IVF can increase their chances of pregnancy by up to 65% if they are also treated with acupuncture.

Two major studies have showed a higher percent chance of pregnancy, and more take home babies, fewer ectopic pregnancies and fewer miscarriages than those women who had acupuncture on the day of embryo transfer.