Can Acupuncture Help Increase My Fertility?

Acupuncture refers to an ancient treatment created in China that uses tiny long needles placed in the skin to stimulate points of energy. These points of energy are believed to be important parts of a person’s mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual balance. People have used acupuncture for a variety of ailments and conditions, from back pain to the common cold. While acupuncture has not been clinically proven to be effective, many people believe that it has its merits.

One of the areas that acupuncture proposes to treat is the area of infertility. Needles are placed into the body at energy points thought to relate to the reproductive organs in order to improve the flow of energy to those organs. Many women who choose to use acupuncture for fertility have reported success. Some evidence suggests that acupuncture increases the amount of endorphins that your brain releases, which in turn reduces stress, which can be a major cause of infertility.

Whether or not acupuncture can be effective at treating fertility depends, in part, on the cause of infertility. If the cause of a couple’s infertility is the male’s low sperm count or quality, the woman going through acupuncture will not help. If a woman has damage to her uterus or her fallopian tubes, again acupuncture will not help. However, advocates of acupuncture would suggest that the man who has a low sperm count might benefit from acupuncture.

Many people who choose to try acupuncture to increase fertility do so alongside of other, more medical infertility treatments. For example, a woman might undergo both IVF and acupuncture. There is nothing that would preclude a woman from using both types of treatments if she so chooses. Still, if this is the case, it can be difficult to know for certain which treatment it was that actually helped with fertility.

Fertility treatments can be very expensive, costing in the tens of thousands of dollars. In contrast, acupuncture can be relatively inexpensive, ranging from a few hundred dollars to a couple of thousand. However, insurance will typically not pay for acupuncture.

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This entry was posted under Getting Pregnant.