• Acupuncture for IVF support and fertility

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  • Acupuncture regulates female reproductive hormones

🔶Female reproductive hormones need to be carefully balanced for optimal fertility. One such hormone is Follicle Stimulating Hormone-FSH and is necessary for ovarian follicles to grow and mature.

🔶If FSH is high, the brain has to work extra hard to grow ovarian follicles and eggs. In natural conception cycles, high FSH could mean that a woman is transitioning into a perimenopausal stage. A very high FSH could mean that the ovaries have stopped working. In assisted fertility treatments IVF and IUI, women who have raised FSH levels do not respond well to ovarian stimulation medication and produce fewer eggs. In extreme cases, they may not produce any eggs.

🔶A recent major review of research concluded that acupuncture positively alters how reproductive hormones are secreted. This is likely to help women respond better to ovarian stimulation medication or natural stimulation by the brain.

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  • Acupuncture improves blood flow and egg quality

🔶Ovarian follicles and their eggs grow in response to hormones and nutrients delivered via the ovarian blood supply. Better blood flow is associated with higher quality eggs. If blood flow is compromised, the follicles and the eggs within them will be starved of nutrients and oxygen, and this could lead to fewer good quality eggs during assisted fertility treatments.

🔶Several studies have found that one of the benefits of acupuncture is that it increases blood flow to the uterus and ovaries by relaxing the walls of blood vessels.

🔶In one recent randomised controlled trial, patients who received acupuncture treatment had significantly more mature eggs than patients who received (placebo) acupuncture. 

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  • Acupuncture helps with embryo implantation

🔶Several studies suggest that acupuncture increases embryo implantation rates. For example, in one recent study, it was found that acupuncture significantly improved clinical pregnancy rates in patients with a history of two or more failed IVF cycles.

🔶Embryo implantation is dependent on many factors, including good blood supply to the uterus. Research shows that good blood supply to the uterus just before egg retrieval is associated with improved IVF conception rates, because acupuncture increases the blood flow to the reproductive organs.

🔶Implantation is also dependent on a normally functioning immune system. In some cases, problems with the immune system stop the embryo from implanting. A considerable body of human and animal research shows that acupuncture helps to regulate immune function.

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  • Acupuncture reduces stress and anxiety 

🔶Studies shows that a high stress levels in patients with fertility problems can further reduce the chances of conception. Stress can: affect reproductive hormones can cause the menstrual cycles to become irregular, which may affect the length of follicular and the luteal phase, preventing ovulation and implantation may increase the risk of miscarriages

🔶Several studies have shown that acupuncture reduces stress and anxiety symptoms in infertility patients. In particular, acupuncture reduces cortisol levels, one of the body's major stress hormones.

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