How Does Acupuncture Work With Fertility?
In this article we break down how Acupuncture works with fertility.
Our bodies are clever beings!
They have two different modes of living.
Normal Mode
The 1st is 'normal mode' or parasympathetic state. It's when your body is doing all the jobs it should. We call it 'rest relax and ovulate mode' (guess why?!)
This mode sees us:
Easily getting nutrients from digested foods
Fighting off bugs
Making new cells
Regulating hormones (including fertility, sleep and appetite ones)
Making new sperm & maturing eggs
Stressed Mode
The 2nd mode is 'fight or flight mode' or sympathetic mode. This flicks on when the body perceives danger or feels stress. This mode has allowed us to live and evolve and not get eaten when we ventured out of the caves!
In this mode, there's new priorities.
The body will rush through or only half do its usual processes.
It redirects blood flow from the 'unessential' parts and sends it to the brain, major organs and your big muscles (so you can run away from the lion or try to fight it! ).
Pelvic blood flow, maturing sperm and eggs or ovulating is not a big priority when you might be getting eaten and need to run away!
The body won't risk you getting pregnant when it doesn’t feel safe/relaxed not 'safe'
The body also makes lots of stress hormones called Cortisol (to help you run and fight). This is made of the same building blocks as Oestrogen, Testosterone & Progesterone.
Your body will prioritise making stress hormones over fertility ones if it needs to.
Cool short term, not so good long term...
When we feel stressed a lot of the time, our pelvic blood flow isn't what it should be, affecting eggs & sperm, in addition to affecting sleep and digestion.
AND we aren't making as many fertility hormones as our body is making Cortisol instead!
= a double whammy of effects on your fertility.
Acupuncture helps in 4 ways
Acupuncture helps to:
Lower Cortisol & switch your mind and body out of 'fight or flight mode' into 'rest relax and ovulate mode' meaning it can make the right amounts of hormones and have blood flow going to all the right places. See more research here.
Improve pelvic blood flow. Wherever we put pins is like a little flag asking the body to send more blood flow and nutrients to this area. (Even pins superficially still brings more blood to areas such as the uterus and ovaries).
**We also have clever little points in other areas like your legs that influence blood flow in the pelvis due to the meridian channels running up there - how cool is that?! It means we don't need to needle your lower tummy to be helping your hormones!**Improve sleep. Enough good sleep means your body remains in 'rest relax and ovulate mode' more by keeping Cortisol levels lower and having enough energy to do all its usual jobs. You can see more studies here.
Aid digestion so you can absorb those nutrients in your food and vitamins. The World Journal of Gastroenterology found this too!
Pretty awesome work for pins as thin as 1/5th of a millimetre!
Time
As magical as Acupuncture is, healing the body & getting it working as it should takes time (after years of it not working at its best)
Eggs take a good 3 cycles to mature the new (better quality) ones coming through.
Sperm takes about 90 days for new & improved ones to be mature and be ready to roll.
This is why the best outcomes for Chinese Med is weekly for at least 3 cycles vs a couple of sessions in the middle of an IVF cycle.
That said, as we can work with the body in all stages of the cycle including in the 2 week wait - you can do Acupuncture at whichever stage you're up to.
Lowering stress so your body can have better pelvic blood flow and hormone regulation is always a good thing!
See more info on Acupuncture & fertility including IVF, PCOS & low ovarian reserve here
The Best Bits
One of the best bits about Acupuncture & Chinese Med is our treatments are tailored to you and your body.
What it needs to feel good.
We aim to please and help with other symptoms (such as period pain) and sleep and gut health.
Even better than that??
It's super relaxing!
Come visit us so we can tell you more!