Acupuncture

[IOTO]

I'm thinking of seeing a standard acupuncturist as fertility ones are quite expensive when they will be doing the same thing?

What are your thoughts on acupuncture?

Hello, I've been having acupuncture for a couple of months now. Although I haven't had success with it for fertility, we're currently waiting on results for my fiancée as so far everything for me is clear. So it maybe something completely unrelated to me. I do find it helps with many 9ther symptoms I have including ME/CFS and type 2 diabetes, migraine, PMS, depression and anxiety.

Will be watching with interest. I'm currently seeing an acupunturist to help with anxiety and fertility (now the fertility side has become the main reason as going through a cycle of egg freezing now) but I'm not noticing so far. Had less follicles on recent scan than without acupuncture a few months ago. (Have had about 8 sessions weekly so far)

I've got friends who have experienced a real change emotionally/feeling lighter/happier/more in tune etc etc but so far I've not had anything I would say like that (and I wanted to/believed it would work so it's not me going in with a negative mindset).

Mine was covered with health insurance but they would only pay £50 a session (central london) when the acupunturist would usually be £75 so she said she would reduce the time from 45 mins to 30 mins and assured me this wouldnt compromise the treatment but I am a bit unsure if it has had an impact and my friends speak of being left with the needles IN for around 30 mins or more and mine are often in and out or left in for 5-10 mins max..

I believe in the idea of acupuncture getting blood flowing better to your reproductive organs and all of that. My lady wanted/wants me to do it for 3-4 months before I'll see a change (along with diet changes etc) so I guess also it's quite an expensive commitment...

Thanks both for sharing. I'm on the fence on how much improvement it makes, but I'm going to book a session and see how that goes.

I was also thinking yoga is a good alternative as that will improve blood flow around the body. And it's free and good for well-being.

@IOTO I know people who swear by it. And everyone has different things to focus on. My acupuncturist said yesterday she wants to "sort me out" by focusing on all my other health related issues that aren't linked to fertility to ensure I have the best chance of our IVF working. I've had a really rough time recently and lost my job in a really very unpleasant way. so I have fortnightly sessions to be able to manage this. I'm having to go through quite a lot of other life stressors atm but I'm 36 in September and been TTC since I was 32 so really can't delay things any further! So with all these other factors to consider it may have an impact on the fertility stuff. There are lots of anecdotes of people getting pregnant after a few months of acupuncture so it's worth a try

@IOTO I'd be curious how you found your first session. Accupunture is the only thing I haven't tried yet, but its expensive as you say (but then so is repeated failed attempts)

@MIW01 @2mumlife I agree. An acupuncturist I tried to book with is unavailable but she recommended contacting the college of Chinese medicine as they have student sessions (3rd and 4th year) who are supervised throughout and it's much much cheaper than what other practitioners charge. So maybe there's a centre like that near where you live.

I've got nothing to lose so going to give it a go. My appointment isn't for another week or so but I'll certainly update you all x

Well ladies...had my final session for a while (as my medical insurance coverage is up) and quite the surprising last session .

She said that we should have covered all the possible blockages except one- and she wanted to put a needle in my perineum!!! I've read a LOT of posts about acupuncture for fertility and not once has anyone mentioned this!! She explained how we'd do it (obviously knickers off and then i lie on my side with one knee up and she puts it in etc and would cover me with a blanket- side note I'm not sure how often this blanket is washed etc or how regularly she might do this!?) and said it was up to me etc but I just didnt feel comfortable at all with it being brought up out of nowhere. Don't think her room felt the most relaxing/private and just took me so much by surprise that I said no. (Still ended up having one around my pubic bone though which resulted in my knickers being halfway down and all exposed there!!)

please tell me others have had this too even though noone appears to have mentioned this before!? obviously I've had needles lots of other places in my body- all around the tummy and under my knickers line before

I'm used to the transvaginal scans and everything but this just made me feel uncomfortable.. I might have other sessions with a different practitioner anyway so I guess in due course I'll see if they bring this up too..

@Rosiestraws Oh my goodness!!!!!!

@Rosiestraws quite surprising to say the least!
I have recently had acupuncture for IVF in 2 different countries apart from the UK, and never ever heard of anything like this... they all have their own way, but this doesn't sound totally normal to me! I definitely wouldn't have been comfortable either!

Hey ladies,
I've just completed 2 months of acupuncture and just like you have had needles on various places, mainly on the tummy and just below but not the perineum. I would've reacted the same way if that was suggested!

Glad it's not just me! I've had a google and seen this is something that has been mentioned as a possible acupuncture place for someone in the latter stages of pregnancy in relation to childbirth but haven't seen anything about blockages.

She took the model doll thing to show me the channel she was speaking about and it actually stopped at the pubic bone but she said "it stops here on the doll but it actually goes to the perineum and then up the back etc".. so she seemed to be referring to a legitimate "channel" that could have been blocked...or maybe not if it wasn't fully shown on the doll.

Maybe she's just super thorough!? But I thought I hadnt heard anyone else mention this when discussing acupuncture for fertility!

That's not something I've ever experienced @Rosiestraws !!! So I've had my 1st appointment with the Fertility clinic and they did an ultrasound scan which found I had a fairly thin uterine lining (4 mm) so my acupuncturist has decided we need to focus on that so that any fertilised embryos have the best chance of implanting. This seems a sensible approach to me as the process of IVF is so disruptive to your natural hormone balance there's no point her focusing on that now. And we recently discovered that my fiancée has a varicocele and DNA damage to the sperm as a result, so our is likely male factor infertility, so no amount of acupuncture was going to help me, lol! So the acupuncturist is working with what she's got and and she's always been honest that she's not a miracle worker so I trust she's doing what she can for us.

This may be helpful to some of you - I recently read, "It Starts Wtmith the Egg," and consequently added to our supplement regime with the hope of improving my antral follicle count (AFC) which was 7 (they like it above 12) and my egg quality which all helps!

Hey everyone just jumping in here for a good word for acupuncture! Honestly it's one of the things that has kept me sane through the many IVF months. It was for fertility (better blood flow to the eggs etc during stimulation), to avoid Ohss (which i did, in spite of over 45 follicles seen on first scan), for anxiety and insomnia (which I can have for months)... I also did it the day of frozen transfer and a day after - currently in the 2ww, hopefully it will have done some good. But independently from that, it made me feel like I had a bit more control over things because I was trying to act on them as well - all in all, did great for my mental and physical sanity! This said, yoga sounds like a great alternative if you can't afford acupuncture or don't feel like it! Or pilates or anything that works on your energy flow and blood flow I guess. Tonnes of baby dust to you all