Acupuncture

[Mariposa70]

Hi,

Am after some info/success stories regarding ttc and acupuncture.

Have just finished 6 mths of clomid which sadly didn't work (have had clomid success in the past but didn't work for us this time)

I do not ovulate unaided and have been looking into acupuncture to kick start it.

Any info would be much appreciated

Thanks

We got a bfp first month of trying acupuncture after 12 months of trying...

I'm a convert, I used to think it was all nonsense but had a great result helping with morning sickness with my first baby and then finally decided to give it a try for ttc and had a very impressive result...

If you can afford it, it can't do any harm so I'd give it a shot. Good luck

I'm not sure there is any clinical evidence, but there is enough anecdotal evidence that my consultant was running some trials with a local acupuncturist who specialises in fertility treatments. I think statistically she does have a higher success rate than women who don't use acupuncture, but I guess there could be lots of other variables contributing.

If you are having private fertility treatment, the cost if acupuncture is a drop in the ocean, so I reckon it's worth a try!

The acupuncturist is Caitlin Allen in Leeds if you're interested

Thank you for your replies ladies.

No have not been having private treatment, had clomid through nhs, so cost would be a factor.

How often did you have to have treatments? Was it like a block of say 6 treatments or an ongoing thing?

Congratulations Dontcallme that is good to hear.

I'm just not sure if it would help me???

My lady suggested an appt a few days before ovulation and an appt a few days after so I only needed 2. But we think I was ovulating, just quite late in the month so not enough time to stick.

I expect that if you're not ovulating naturally then you might need more appts over the course of the month.

My appts were £45 a session, so not cheap but worth it totally!

She also recommended a low carb, high protein diet which people going through ivf are he really recommended to follow. Supposed to improve egg quality I think (but not sure of the reason). I followed the diet for the month we got our bfp as well.

Wow that's brill.

Have been emailing a local lady who does the acupuncture (quite impressed she has been replying at this time of night 2days before Christmas) she has recommended weekly sessions for first part of cycle, so 2 as well. Theory being that as I've been pregnant before the latter part of cycle is ok, just need to concentrate on ov.

Yeah it's not cheap but would be worth giving it a go for a few months eh.

Is the diet something I could google? Or did they give it to you?

Sorry for all the questions, am trying to grasp at a bit of positivity :)

She just told me low carb, high protein... So I chatted to a couple of diet nutballs enthusiasts at work who gave me some pointers. I basically replaced bread, pasta, rice, potatoes with extra veg. Ate a lot more eggs and nuts.... It wasn't too hard but I'd have struggled to do it for longer than a couple of months!

Oh and I really have no idea if any of it helped, but it just felt so nice to be doing something/anything rather than just waiting waiting waiting every bloody month!

Thank you, you have really been a big help.

Been doing weight watchers so it doesn't sound too different, the bread bit I will struggle with haha.

Will give it a go, someone recommended grapefruit juice too, if nothing else I will be healthier :)

I've been having acupuncture for about 3 months, with a session just before ovulation and one at the start of my period (that was more for pain relief and blimey did it work!). No bfp for us but we'll be continuing with it during our upcoming ivf cycle. Honestly I personally doubt it does much but it's nice to relax for a bit and the guy I go to is very nice. My FSH has dropped from 9.6 to 6.5 from April to November, which included the acupuncture time, but I also started doing more exercise and changed my eating habits which probably did more tbh.

I had acupuncture 10 years ago, after being told that I wasn't ovulating. I had six months months of treatment, and then fell pregnant with ds1 without any further intervention. It was fairly costly, but I knew it was having an affect early on.

I could actually tell when I started ovulating, and conceived two months later.

I had acupuncture with ivf. I had a couple of sessions during stimulation, plus one around implantation time. It worked for me, bit don't know whether that was a coincidence.

Also, have you looked at Zita West's book at nutrition for fertility?

We were trying for 8 years until I got pregnant the month after my one and only go at acupuncture. I don't know whether the acupuncture was what helped me to finally get pregnant but it was the only thing I had done differently that month & now we have a happy & healthy baby after being told it wasn't likely to happen for us due to my problems with ovulation. The fertility drs wouldn't give us clomid despite my losing over 3 stone in weight and after I was sent away again empty handed because despite my hard work, I was still a few lbs above the recommended weight for our area, I turned to acupuncture in desperation so I could feel that I was at least doing something and like I said, we conceived the month afterwards.

You never know, it's worth a try. At the very least you'll have an hour or so of complete relaxation and that can't be a bad thing! Good luck, as someone who never dreamed she'd end up being a mother, I hope it all works out for you.

Thank you so much all,

I'm going to assess the finances and see if we can try, like the majority says it's worth a go :)

Hearing positives is great, thank you.