Acupuncture IVF and My Pregnancy!

by DG
(Narragansett, RI)

I know for a fact that acupuncture helps IVF work.
I am 31 years old and never thought I would have trouble getting pregnant. My husband and I are the same age and always wanted children. After being married for a few years and buying a house we decided to get pregnant.

All of my friends and co-workers were getting pregnant for the first and second times and here I was trying desperately, making myself crazy and not enjoying sex anymore, because I had to do it.

After a year or so of trying I decided to seek medical help. Of course by Western medicine standards everything checked out and there were no reasons given for my infertility. All of my hormone levels were "normal" as was my husband's semen analysis. I had unexplained infertility.

I thought I lived a very healthy lifestyle; worked out, ate well, slept ok, but something wasn't working. The reproductive endocrinologists gave me some options and I went for the least invasive and inexpensive. I decided to try follicle stimulating meds with intrauterine insemination (IUI).

I tried 3 cycles of Clomid with no luck and much heartache. I then moved on to injectable medications which gave a slightly higher percentage chance of achieving pregnancy and I had new hope. I thought for sure that was the key, I just needed a little more help and things would work out.

In between months with meds, I would occasionally have to sit out a month because of a pesky huge cyst they were watching. I felt like those months were wasted time and I needed to feel like I was taking action.

Finally after Follistim and IUI failed me 2 more times I decided to try acupuncture. I figured it couldn't hurt and would only help. I made an appointment with Amelia Hirota and so much clicked on my first visit.

There still was no Western medicine diagnosis for me, but Amelia pointed out several imbalances within me and seemed to know what was going on with me. Everything she said about me resonated so true, as far as my lifestyle, habits, and energy. I was hooked and had more hope.

I began seeing Amelia weekly, worked on my diet, ate less cold and more warm foods, cut out artificial substances and allowed my body time to rest and recover instead of always pushing so hard. I started charting my temps, although I admit I was never great at it, and started to really understand my cycles.

I had also decided to try an IVF cycle at the same time. Unfortunately the meds I used didn't produce enough follicles and left me with another failed attempt. I was crushed, but still felt better than I had in a long time. Acupuncture was keeping my mind calmer and continuing to seem to be the right path for me to follow.

My body was making more sense to me and I was nourishing myself and working on building healthy strong follicles that would eventually be fertilized. It took a lot of patience to keep going, I wanted to give up, stop spending the money and not having to worry.

I took a few months off from Western medicine and kept up my weekly acupuncture treatments. I started using herbs recommended by Amelia and focused as much as I could on my inner health. I started taking more yoga and doing less running and weight lifting. It was a hard decision but in retrospect it was necessary to give my body a break from injections and stress.

In December I decided to try IVF again with continued acupuncture and herbs. In mid January, I got the great news that I was finally pregnant. Today I am 26 and 1/2 weeks and feel great. I think that my experience with Amelia treating my whole body over time instead of just having fertility drugs thrown at me is the reason for my success.

It took time for my body to prepare itself to handle a pregnancy. I was worn down and undernourished and didn't know it. I didn't have the energy to sustain myself, so how could my body produce healthy follicles and achieve a pregnancy? I thought I was ok, I wasn't too thin or fat. There weren't any "medical" problems. It took a different way of thinking about and treating infertility to correct my undiagnosable problem with conception.

I guess the long and short of it is that I needed the time, the patience, and the understanding of my own body to help me, rather than just wanting a diagnosis and a quick fix with medication. I needed acupuncture and Chineese medicine as a complement to IVF.

I do believe the IVF was necessary but don't think it would have worked on it's own. It took 5 or 6 months of acupuncture along with only 2 cycles of IVF to get pregnant as opposed to almost 2 years of trying on my own first and then 5 medicated IUI cycles with no luck.

I am grateful to have found Amelia and will be seeing her again to prepare me for labor in a couple of months. I wish for my story to give hope to those reading it and finish on the note that patience, acceptance, and nurturing of self are of utmost importance.