Is this for you?

This program is designed to help maximize your chances of conceiving and having a healthy pregnancy and baby. This program is for couples that have been trying to to have a baby or are planning to start trying in the near future.

Why would you need it?

You may have been trying to conceive for quite sometime, or you might have been unable to hold a pregnancy to full term, or you may have been diagnosed with an infertility condition that natural medicine might be able to help with such as:

     Female infertility- Endometriosis, PCOS, Anovulation, Amenorrhea, Autoimmune Infertility, High     

                                       FSH, Hormonal Imbalance, Luteal Phase Defect, Unexplained Infertility.

     Male Infertility – low sperm count, motility or morphology.

 

Our approach

Using a combination of Naturopathic and nutritional therapies combined with acupuncture, homeopathy and Chinese herbs a treatment plan tailored to your specific needs will be developed. These approaches may help regulating menstrual cycles and hormone levels, stimulating ovulation, adjusting basal body temperature, normalise the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, as well as improving sleep patterns and energy levels, reducing stress, restoring good digestive functioning and improving immunity.

What is involved in the plan- a weekly acupuncture treatment combined with herbs, dietary advice and supplements for a period of 3-6 months.

Why 3-6 months? Your egg and sperm take 90 – 120 days to fully develop. A pre-conception period is utilized to ensure that there is enough nutritional support and blood flow to help the egg and sperm develop to their full potential. The menstrual cycle can take up to 3-4 months to become regulated, this include working with the lining of the uterus to ensure that is thick enough and free of clots to support conception.

How is the treatment plan broken down?

3-4 months Pre-conception care: A full health history including tongue and pulse inspection will be taken, It is important to also bring in any previous medical investigations including blood test so that a full picture of your overall health can be assessed. Any basal body temperature charting that has been done will also be included to help form a diagnosis of the underlying imbalances in the body. If you never done basal body temperature charting before instructions on how to do this and why it is important can be found by clicking on the link in the right hand column. After discussing with you the diagnosis and treatment plan Acupuncture, Herbal, diet and nutritional treatment include lifestyle advice will be prescribed.

Followed by 2-3 month Consciously trying to conceive: allow a further 2-3 months of weekly treatment while trying for conception. Advice as to the correct timing according to you basal body temperature and time of ovulation is given at this time.

The natural fertility support program includes:

• A full health history including current diet and lifestyle choices

• Weekly acupuncture treatment sessions aimed at reducing stress and increasing blood flow to help resolve infertility issues and ensure that the sperm and egg are getting the blood flow they need to develop.

• Individually prescribe Herbal and nutritional support aimed at addressing underlying fertility issues strengthening your body as a whole.

• Education as to how your body works and how to understand your fertility signs, such as when you are ovulation and the best time to try for conception.

*Brisbane Acupuncture for fertility clinic in Annerley offers natural fertility treatments and IVF support using Acupuncture, Chiropractic, Naturopathy and Herbs. It currently services surrounding suburbs including Annerley, Fairfield, Greenslopes, Salisbury, Holland Park, Buranda, Stones Coner, Yeronga, Yeerongpilly, Moorooka, Tennyson, Tarragindi, Dutton Park, Highgate Hill and West End.
 

Research on Fertility and Acupuncture can be viewed by clicking the link in the Right hand column.

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Problems with Fertility often occur due to various imbalances within the body Acupuncture and Chinese herbs may help to correct these imbalances by:

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Regulating the menstrual cycle and balancing the hormone levels, this includes hormonal levels in men: this can present as irregular, short or long menstrual periods, premenstrual tension, poor follicular development, period pain and decreased libido.

Improve the quality of a woman’s fertile mucus: Fertile mucus appears several days prior to ovulation and is required to help nourish the sperm and guide it to the egg.

Improves the lining of the uterus: helps conditions such as endometriosis, fibroids and menstrual clots, as well as increasing the blood supply to the uterus and ovaries which helps thicken the lining and improve the chances of implantation.

Enhance the internal environment of the fallopian tubes: Traditional Chinese medicine aims to improve the elasticity and the secretions of the fallopian tubes, facilitating the passage of the fertilised egg into the uterus.

Enhance egg development: While the genetic material for a woman’s eggs are created when the woman is herself an embryo, the process of the egg maturing comes under the influence of her hormones. Clinically it also appears possible to influence the integrity of the eggs released following acupuncture treatment, this may be due to increasing the blood supply to the developing follicles or by increasing the nutritional supply to the egg via the fluids that surround and nourish it.

  

Calms emotions and reduces stress: Tension in the body not only causes tightening of the neck and shoulder muscles but also causes the fallopian tube and the villi, which help move the egg towards the uterus, to contract. This contraction causes a delayed arrival time and hinders the chances of conception. Acupuncture may help reduce such tension.

 

Increases the quality and quantity of sperm: Acupuncture and Chinese herbs can improve sperm morphology and motility.

Normal sperm count values are currently given as:

Greater than 20 million sperm per ml

Greater than 50% of sperm moving vigorously (motility)

Greater than 14 % with no deformities (morphology).

A population study looking at men’s fertility found that those men that succeeded in fathering a child had:

Greater than 48 million sperm per ml

A motility of more than 63%

A normal morphology of 12% 

 

(New England Journal of Medicine 345(19):1388-1393).

This study indicates the importance of men achieving the highest sperm count and motility possible.

 

Increases the overall Vitality of the body: According to Chinese Medicine Theory the constitutional strength of the child is dependent on the vitality of the mother and father at time of conception. Chinese Medicine may help address the underlying imbalances of dis-ease to help bring the body back into balance, thus strengthening the overall vitality and improving the quality of life of the mother, father and future child. It is often this reduced “vitality” that is the cause of unknown fertility issues.

Promote embryo implantation: In a study where acupuncture was used during IVF at the time of embryo implantation the result was a significantly higher viable pregnancy rate. (Fertility and Sterility 74(4):721-72). In this study 160 women undergoing IVF were monitored. 

The success rate in the acupuncture group was 42.5% compared to a 26.3% success rate in the group of women that did not receive acupuncture.

In a study of 114 women at the Reproductive Medicine and Fertility Centre in Colorado Springs (American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) October 2004) half of the women received acupuncture prior to and following embryo replacement. The women who received acupuncture had a 51% pregnancy rate compared to 36% in control group and a 08% miscarriage rate compared to 20% in control group. Acupuncture also was found to reduce the risk of tubal pregnancy and increase the live birth rate. The live birth rate for each IVF cycle was 23 % higher than the cycles for the control group.

Promote a viable pregnancy: Traditional Chinese medicine may be used in pregnancy to help promote maternal and fetal well being.

 

Acupuncture to assist in the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy may be useful to reduce anxiety and induce relaxation. Research has shown that for women with a history of recurrent miscarriage, regular monitoring and stress reduction treatment in the first 12 weeks increased live birth rates. 86% of women in the treatment group, compared to 33% for women that did not receive treatment. (Aust NZ J Obstet Gynecol 1991:31:4:3210)

 

There are also treatments that may aid with many problems during pregnancy (such as nausea and vomiting, heart burn, constipation, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, insomnia, breech and posterior presentation, anemia, babies that are small for their gestational age, blood pressure problems and muscular skeletal pain such as back, rib and pelvic girdle pain), as well as treatment protocols to prepare for childbirth and if necessary to promote induction of labour.

 

 

*Acupuncture for Fertility Brisbane clinic services inner south of Brisbane area including: Annerley, Fairfield, Greenslopes, Salisbury, Holland Park, Buranda, Stones Coner, Yeronga, Yeerongpilly, Moorooka, Tennyson, Tarragindi, Dutton Park, Highgate Hill and West End.

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Basal Body Temperature

Charting Your Menstrual Cycle

 

 

Charting your menstrual cycle is a great tool to get to know the way that your body works. Charting allows us to have an insight into your reproductive function without invasive or expensive tests.

 

Charting has the following advantages:

 

 

• Detects when you are ovulating

• Shows whether or not your temperature drops or rises, reflecting a healthy cycle

• Determines the length of your follicular and luteal phase

• Assesses your thyroid health

• Can show hormone deficiencies and excesses

• Allow you to determine whether or not you are producing fertile mucus

• Allow you to be more in tune with your body

• Charts symptoms so that they can be linked to your phases of the menstrual cycle

 

 

By knowing all of these things we can:

 

 

• Achieve or avoid conception

• Gain an insight into your cycle, which may assist in determining your treatment plan

 

 

Charting can take a bit of determination and habit, but the rewards are worth it. Charting uses 2 main components, temperature and mucus changes.

 

Temperature

Every morning on rising you must take your temperature. Buy a good quality digital thermometer, preferably an ovulation thermometer as these have a smaller decimal point reading. To chart your temperature:

 

 

• Pick a time that you most commonly wake up. Set an alarm if this helps.

• You MUST take your temperature as soon as you wake up, before any activity. This included before going to the bathroom, or having a glass of water.

• You need to take your temperature at the same time every morning after three hours of uninterrupted sleep. If your sleep was interrupted that night or you take your temperature at a different time make a note of it on your chart.

• Put the thermometer in your mouth under one side of your tongue. Leave for 30 seconds then switch on.

• Leave in the same place, with your mouth closed until the thermometer beeps and takes its reading

• Most digital thermometers will store the reading, so you can go back to sleep if you need to and record the temperature later.

 

 

Fertile Mucus

Your mucus is important as it can warn of ovulation before temperatures, and can tell if you are fertile. To check your mucus:

 

 

• When on the toilet, place two fingers just inside the opening of the vagina

• Examine and feel the mucus. Try to stretch it between your fingers

• Describe the mucus in your chart. Use words like scant, increasing, wet, dry, pasty, thick, thin, stretchy, opaque, white, yellow, brown.

• Clear, stretchy mucus is called spin, this mucus is your most fertile and occurs around ovulation.

 

 

Other symptoms

Record other symptoms on your chart, such as intercourse, pain, mood etc. use a scale of 1-5 for severity.

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Research in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs for Fertility

 

Chinese medicine developed over 2000 years separate to modern medicine. Without the use of ultrasound, x-ray equipment etc Chinese medicine developed its own diagnostic tools such as tongue and pulse analysis. That said Chinese medicine is constantly evolving and any modern medicine results that you have will be of great value to the overall diagnosis. As evidence based research into acupuncture and Chinese herbs continues to prove the effectiveness of Chinese medicine, modern medicine is only now starting to rediscovering what the ancient chinese new thousands of years ago.