Infertility Conception Acupuncture
I was trained first as a doctor and then added acupuncture as a treatment modality way back in my Seattle days. My medical degree was at the prestigious Bastyr University which is also renowned for their excellent Master’s degree program in acupuncture which was where I also obtained my acupuncture degree. Bastyr had an incredibly strong program for the Chinese medicine and acupuncture treatment of female gynecological problems and infertility at that time. This was augmented by the Naturopathic midwifery program at Bastyr which gave you plenty of opportunity to integrate your acupuncture treatments with the midwifery patients so we became proficient in not only infertility conception acupuncture, but also problems that occur during pregnancy and postpartum issues as well. It was a very special education and it was evident in the successes I had early on in my clinic right after being trained!
Women with PCOS (Poly Cystic Ovary Disease) typically have a hard time conceiving. I had several women early on in my career come to me with PCOS. We used Chinese herbs to help with symptoms and acupuncture to help their bodies be optimally ready for conception. The result is 20 years later I see facebook pictures of young men and women in their teen years who are the children of those patients.
There was the young attractive artist of Native descent who lived in Seattle. She had tried to conceive for over 2 years with no luck. She came to my Greenlake office for help. I was doing the acupuncture I had been trained to do for conception when she came in one day and told me her uncle, a British Columbia native medicine man, had told her of a vision that she would be with child by November of that year. This was only 4 weeks away! Sure enough she came in on the second week of November pregnant. She painted a piece of native art to commemorate the event and gave it to me.
Over the 20 years of using Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture to help women conceive I have seen a lot of successes and also some efforts that did not get the desired result. The fact that not everyone responds comes with the territory when you are trying to address difficult situations. What has bothered me the most is practitioners who claim to be proficient in Infertility and Conception, but in reality their depth of knowledge and actual experience leaves much to be desired.
There are several unique protocols to consider when helping a woman to conceive. I have to say my medical training as a doctor helps in these situations, but I am now training my acupuncturists to look at infertility clients from a Western and a Chinese medicine view simultaneously. Do you treat her in phase with her menstrual cycle? Do you treat her according to her Chinese constitutional diagnosis? Is she deficient? Is she stagnant? Do you treat her according to the Western diagnosis? Does she have a luteal phase defect? Does she suffer from a low follicular count? Ovarian insufficiency? The choices are myriad and if one does not have the in depth training they are only misleading the patient and are more of an obstacle. I have been in situations where I was not chosen to assist a woman in her quest because I did not look like she imagined her practitioner would look. I was not a young woman her age with a certain look and feel who said she was an expert. Those words can be said by anyone. In that case I can still say a small prayer that this woman will be successful, but the message is caveat emptor as looks can be deceiving.
At my clinic, Treasure Coast Community Acupuncture in Stuart, Florida, we make sure each conception patient gets a treatment plan and we make a note of it in our records so each treatment is consistent. I also tarin my practitioners so that we are doing everything we can to help each woman that comes to us for this. We also work closely with area midwives, fertility clinics, doctors and doulas.
