IVF – let’s increase your chances.

This week I got a call from a woman in desperation. She had 24 hours to increase the lining of her endometrium; otherwise her egg transfer would be cancelled.

In any IVF situation, this news isn’t good. To add to her stress, this was to be her very first donor transfer. She had been on IVF for five years without any success. Finally she had gotten a donor, but her chances of transfer were not looking positive. She was at wits end. And to add another layer of complexity - she was also petrified of needles.

For this patient, I had to act fast- making space for her to come in immediately.

Research indicates that acupuncture increases IVF success by up to 70%.* It does so for several reasons. It supports the woman’s body as a unit. For all patients, it is important to get a full case history to diagnose and devise a unique treatment plan. This allows us to treat each person individually, rather than placing them in a category of ‘infertile’. Each body system isn’t disconnected from the next. These systems provide an intricate network to allow the body to function in all areas.
Acupuncture is brilliant for fertility, and IVF support as it increases blood flow to the uterus and ovaries, and therefore assists in thickening the endometrial lining which further aids implantation.

What’s more, by encouraging blood flow to the ovaries, a better ovarian response is seen, which results in more mature and better quality follicles. Remember, it is not necessarily about how many eggs you get; it’s about the quality of the eggs.
Acupuncture also lessens the side effects of hormone treatments and benefits the patient emotionally.

I love treating IVF because I get to see these great changes before my own eyes in the clinic. At my clinic, The Pagoda Tree, I see patients at their wits end, who have had multiple unsuccessful IVF transfers, and then watch them go on to have positive pregnancies. As general procedure, we treat throughout the entire IVF cycle, from start to finish with regular acupuncture to support each phase. The vital times are pre pick up, as well as those leading up to the transfer, including treatment the day of the transfer to encourage implantation.

The patient I wrote about at the start of this blog, called me back the following day, astounded by the transformation of her uterine lining. It had gone from ‘hopeless’ to thick and ready for the transfer in less than 24 hours! I was so pleased to hear how well her had body responded. It was yet another reassurance for me, that time and time again acupuncture delivers amazing transformation in the body, IVF or otherwise. This patient has now re-booked after seeing the benefits of acupuncture in a very short space of time. She put her fear of needles behind her and has now had 2 very relaxing and enjoyable treatments – a far cry from the scary and hopeless experience she was expecting.

*http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089%2Fact.2004.10.316
http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:0_26E9DXp4IJ:scholar.google.com/+acupuncture+increasing+IVF+percentage&hl=en&as_sdt=2000