Acupuncture or reflexology - which of these helped you conceive?

[artylady14]

Hi lovely pregnant ladies. Congrats on your pregnancy! I'm still trying and spending a lot of money on therapies to regulate my period and make it easier to concieve. I have been having acupuncture for several months now and just had a couple of reflexology sessions too. As you can imagine this is very expensive to have both in a week. Acupuncture has not worked for me yet but at the time of starting sessions I have had some stressful life events like getting married to deal with. Stress over but periods got even more irregular so I thought I would try reflexology too. Very relaxing but did either of these get you pregnant (esp with PCOS)! Thanks for advice!

Hi,

I used my own research on diet and supplements plus acupuncture and I got pregnant after 12 years of infertility (quite bad PCOS with metabolic syndrome). I wasn't actually going for infertility treatment, I just wanted to feel well again.

My acupuncturist was very good at sorting women's problems out and was happy to work with my suggestions and research etc. He could make me have a period quite easily (something that norethisterone from the doc didn't always achieve!) and the protocol we used got me pregnant in under 6 months - though this wasn't the immediate intention, it was just a happy side-effect!

However I believe that it was a combination of persistent metformin, supplements and acupuncture that I think finally worked. The supplements sorted my liver out, the metformin reduced circulating insulin and the acupuncture sorted out my hormones and got me to actually ovulate.

Don't forget, like doctors, acupuncturists specialise and if yours isn't achieving results after a set time-frame, it might be worth finding one who can! Don't give up hope

Both have been scientifically proven not to work. By that I mean rigorous, peer reviewed studies have shown that they don't work. They have the same, or less efficacy as placebo. Same as homeopathy. Doesn't work.

You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proven to work?

Medicine.

Hi, thanks for both replies. I was sure I would get different views! I went to the dr today (a locum again) and he wont prescribe me metformin and referred me to a gynaecologist again. I have booked an appointment in a few weeks with a female GP partner at the surgery and will ask about metformin again.

The acupuncturist has done wonders for my wrist (I also go for tendonitis in my wrist). I dont know what to think yet as unfortunately the minute we started acupuncture I started a few months of highly stressful life events. Both are relaxing if nothing else. Both assure me they see a lot of women re fertility so I dont know which to drop.

Please, please do not spend your money on these charlatans - there are very unscrupulous people out there who take money without a shred of decency from people who are unable to conceive, or who are ill.

I will say it until I'm blue in the face. Acupuncture, acupressure, reflexology, crystals or any other woo. It. Does. Not. Work.

Would people take a random drug I'd whipped up in the lab if I said to them, "well, I've done multiple studies, none show this stuff works, but I promise you it does..." No, they wouldn't. And yet they spend millions of pounds of taxpayers cash on bloody homeopathic hospitals! Absolute madness.

Since neither therapy is scientific proven to be effective for fertility suggest, if you really want and can afford to continue (bearing in mind that private conventional fertility investigations and treatments aren't cheap!) you could pick the one you feel best about doing!

Of course the alternative therapists will say they "treat" lots of women for fertility things: there are lots of people struggling and willing to part with money in hope of having a baby.

People get pregnant after years of trying, whether or not they are forking out a fortune on charlatans...just as skiptonlass said...it's either going to medicine or nature doing it's job as you hope it would...it's NOT acupuncture/reflexology/aromatherapy.

Well, acupuncture has been around for X thousand years but "of course, it doesn't work"

I know people who have had acupuncture for fertility issues - and now are parents!

You have to go with your gut feelings, but having had both, you can massage your own feet's pressure points (google is your friend) but you can't do your own acupuncture - just go for the best practitioners, again, google there.

Wishing you all the best!

Save the money you'd spend on either 'therapy' and spend it on a holiday. That's what did it for us (also PCOS) :)

Definitely keep asking for Metformin - it's generic and cheap (I think), so no reason (except medical) you shouldn't be able to give it a go and see if it works for you.

Thanks for your advice. Going away in a few weeks, so hard to plan it with irregular cycles as it's never a fertile period. Thanks again everyone.

Depends how you define "working".

Aromatherapy involves essential oils used largely to lift moods, relax etc. in my experience sniffing a bit of lavender or neroli uplifts my mood and I stick some lime and orange into hot water in the winter months and yes I like it and I feel better in the dark. Ok, is that "proven to have cured my SAD"? Well, who knows, who cares. I'll stick it on again this winter. And again the scents will relax me.

Acupuncture, I have had this. It relaxed me. I fell asleep. I woke very refreshed and felt refreshed. Does it "work" to help us feel relaxed? Like massage? Well, relaxation might work with bodily functions.

I don't expect aromatherapy or acupuncture to cure cancer, heal peoples broken wrists or anything remotely similar. But they do work to relax people, sometimes significantly, and in some cases, relaxation combined with placebo effect "helps" people. If so, so be it.

True Focus,Focus and I'm very aware of the placebo effect. To be honest, I think reflexology is just incredibly relaxing. The acupuncture I have found has genuinely massively improved my wrist function, as opposed to the hand surgeon who just gave me a steroid injection.

I have heard of so many people being helped to conceive with acupuncture that I was expecting more of a positive response on here. I asked because my wrist is so much better that I could stop acupuncture but thought of maybe continuing just for the fertility aspect. The past few months have been very stressful and actually messed with my cycle so I couldn't just the acupuncture fairly I thought.

Thanks again all.

There's a lot to recommend massage, and things that relax you. I had some great massage after an injury a while back and the woman doing it was insistent that her brand of whatever-it-was oil (tincture of rhino and gerbil, or some such) was the magic ingredient. It wasn't - she could have used chip fat, but by god, she was good at the massage. I walked out feeling sooooo much better, because I was all crunched up with pain before.
A lot of alternative therapies are done in a relaxing environment, with a person who projects an air of authority, and crucially, listens and takes the time. That's what gives it such a good placebo effect - if you relax and take an hour for yourself (and let's face it, we are all so, so busy these days) it's going to make you feel better.

I know what I wrote above sounds harsh, but I've seen loved ones get suckered into all sorts of stuff. If it was a modern drug with the same level of evidence as any alternative therapy, people would be sued left right and centre! There have been plenty of studies done on alt meds and they do not work. Of course most of our current drugs ARE based on plant compounds- scientists are really open to looking at traditional herbal preparations because often they DO contain active ingredients. These then go through the drug discovery process....

Arty, I really hope the wrist clears up and you have some luck with conception :)

I am one of THE biggest skeptics you'll meet and don't really believe in the placebo effect for chronic conditions, but I had acupuncture. But then I don't buy the notion that it doesn't work

I got pregnant after 7 months, was it down to this? who knows? I'm a bit skeptical but what I can tell you is that she sorted out my cycle spotting and heavy, crampy periods and the issues I had with pain from dense breast tissue. I went to western drs for all of these, and never had any luck properly diagnosing or treating any of it. There is actually research about it's efficacy in relation to pregnancy and IVF - there's a definite uptick in successful cycles. Have no idea whether it's peer reviewed tho

I've also had it previously for chronic scoliosis back pain relief and it was immediate. Nothing else hit the spot, and I didn't fancy a lifetime reliant on opiate based painkillers which is what my GP suggested.

My mum also used it after a bad accident where she was in traction for months and could hardly walk. She can't run a marathon but it definitely got her up and running, and keeps the arthritis pain at bay

To add; one of the things I drew the line at from the acupuncturist was herbal supplements as I really didn't buy in to that. they're big on this for fertility treatment; in my experience it all smells like horse shit (literally and figuratively...)

I will say that acupuncture did certainly work for me, as I have never ovulated in my life until that one time that I happened to get pregnant. I had been taking metformin (to get it, push to see an endocrinologist, particularly if you are obese or have known insulin resistance as they will make your GP prescribe it) for years and nothing had worked.

Don't feel that it's a game full of charlatans. I cannot tolerate homeopathy and quackery, but there are GP acupuncturists who clearly believe it has a place in general practice. All I can say is that it did work for me [smiles] but obviously you need to find out the extent of the PCOS and see what you need to do to reach your end goal.

This link supports the lower testosterone and cycle regularity of acupuncture (particularly electro acupuncture, which I had).

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090629081135.htm

I am convinced Bowen technique worked for me, even if it didn't it certainly helped sort out other body issues I had

I was ttc for 6 months and thought I would give acupuncture a go. I was a little sceptical, but thought it wouldn't do any harm (especially as my works medical cover pays for it). I conceived the same month. I am also now using it to help with morning sickness and have found it the only thing that works. Is it the placebo affect? Maybe, but if it works I don't care .

My GP actually introduced me to acupuncture as he gave me a few treatments for a sprained neck years ago. It was very effective for pain relief.

I don't know much about Bowen technique. Will look it up as I am very interested in finding out about complementary treatments.

Yes to reflexology. I booked six sessions and was pregnant by the third session. I did try acupuncture (for something else) and it was too painful! Reflexology has been used successfully in trials at a hospital in the south of England.

I had one session of acupuncture at the start of the cycle I conceived DS 1 after 9 months of trying.

Of course it might have been a coincidence. Still glad I did it though. :) Good luck OP

I would just like to say I tried acupuncture while ttc and it didn't do anything for me. However, at the beginning of this year I stated IVF and went to a different acupuncturist that specialised in the Zita West style. I produced lots of eggs, a high number were fertile and a sufficient number made it to day 5 blastocycst. I am now 13 weeks pregnant. Now I don't know whether the acupuncture helped or not but I like to think it did.
Another thing to look into is McTimony Chiropractor- they are a more holistic chiropractor and work on making sure bones and joints are in the right place in your body. I went because I heard they can help with infertility as often there are blockages that you are unaware of but they can clear. Anyway turns out my hips were all out of alignment, one leg was longer than the other... I wasn't in pain but good to get sorted. They are also very good for during pregnancy, especially later on when body starts to change!

Hope that is of help :)

Acupuncture isn't supposed to relax you, by the way. It's not that sort of treatment.

I suffered from extreme anxiety and depression caused by (among other things) unexplained infertility.

I tried acupuncture and hypnofertility and it 'worked' in as much as I calmed the fuck down, got my head around everything and I was in a MUCH better place mentally. That was before round 4 IVF and it worked. (And 8 years of trying. And 2+ miscarriages)

It also works because it helped me take and be in charge of SOMETHING - it empowered me massively.

And I also agree with PPs - there are total charlatans out there (as there are in every profession) so watch out for them.

The other 95% are genuine and if you're convinced that acupuncture is WOO then speak to the billions of Chinese people since the xxxx century who've used it and 'think' it works...

I never found acupuncture made much of a difference to me but a friend who had completely very irregular periods and pcos said over a few months of treatment it regulated her so she was every 28 days like clockwork. So clearly it does work for some people!