Thought I would post this in one of the work places in Toronto that I can be found in during the week: Simple Cures at Toronto’s iconic Beaches Community. For anyone who wants to start IVF and use acupuncture to assist you on your pregnancy journey, this may be a great place to start!
As a Registered Acupuncturist, one of the most common things I am asked is whether acupuncture can be used to assist somebody going through IVF. Yes it can! At Simple Cures, we understand that navigating through the process of IVF on its own can be complicated and confusing. Add acupuncture to the mix, and things may start to feel like “information overload”.
We thought that we’d keep things simple by introducing acupuncture to those who are thinking about or about to go through IVF and are looking at ways to naturally prepare for the process. We’d love to provide you with an offer for an initial series of SIX one-hour acupuncture consultations and treatments (for what we would normally charge for 45-minute consultation and treatment sessions).
The whole initial series of six sessions will help lay the groundwork for assisting a patient going through a typical cycle of IVF and minimize some of the typical symptoms that they may experience in the process.
Some of the most common side effects of going through the an IVF cycle would be:
- bloating
- hormonal fluctuations
- pelvic pain or aching
- hot flashes
- minor spotting or bleeding
- anxiety and changes in emotion
- fatigue
- distension
And that is only a short list of some of the things acupuncture can help a patient manage. Some patients may also benefit from acupuncture’s ability to help prevent untimely uterine bleeding post embryo transfer, help a patient produce more intact and better quality eggs before egg retrieval and assist in the thickening of and maintain the integrity of a healthy uterine lining pre and post embryo transfer.
Six sessions will help a patient best in a schedule such as thatdescribed below:
BEFORE starting IVF:
- 2 treatments recommended
- calm down and let the body slow down
Egg Retrieval (one treatment before and one treatment right after):
- 2 treatments recommended at the following times
- One just prior to egg retrieval (a process in which a woman uses hormone therapies to stimulate the production of multiple eggs in her ovaries and whereby these eggs are retrieved and then frozen for fertilization at a later time)
- One just after egg retrieval (an important step when the patient in question has a history of not ovulating on time, doesn’t always have a regular period or who may produce several eggs but none of which matures enough to be released when she does ovulate).
Embryo Transfer (one treatment before and one treatment right after):
- 2 treatments recommended at the following times
- One just prior to embryo transfer (to thicken, grow and retain the rich network of blood vessels in the uterine lining and prepare for implantation)
- One just after embryo transfer (an important step preventing the premature sloughing off of the same blood vessels before the embryo can implant there).
This initial set of six sessions is the basic amount of sessions one would need to get the most out of their IVF cycle and manage the whole process with minimal side effects. Of course, as each patient’s situation is different, we may recommend additional treatments to allow a patient to optimize their IVF experience with a more tailored, individualized program to suit their health needs.
If anyone has any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to send me an email or DM me on Instagram or Facebook. I’d love to hear from you!
**Photos are courtesy of website: unsplash.com.