Getting pregnant might take a longer time for some women. There are different ways that help women get pregnant and one of those is acupuncture. You might have heard this somewhere else, but how true is this claim?
What is acupuncture?
Before knowing if this alternative method can really help in fertility, let us first know what it is all about. Acupuncture is based on a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) system that dates back to 3,000 years ago. Fine needles are inserted at various but not random points around the body to correct the imbalance in energy (or qi) which flows around the body in ‘channels’ or ‘meridians’.
Acupuncture is also used to treat different conditions such as acne, anxiety, back pain and even nausea. The needles used are so fine so they don’t really hurt.
Acupuncture in Fertility
Acupuncturists aim to rebalance a person’s energy flow, priming a woman’s body for fertility. Chinese medicine practitioners believe that when the flow of qi is disrupted due to poor health habits or other factors, pain or disease can occur. Acupuncture can help keep the normal flow of energy unblocked thus, increasing a couple’s chances of conception.
One of the ways that acupuncture increases fertility is by reducing stress – this is often a key factor in the fertility of both women and men. When a person is under stress, the hormone cortisol is released in the brain, altering the brain’s neurochemical balance. This leads to a change in the hormone levels, disrupting the pituitary balance which is an essential key to the reproductive cycle.
How Acupuncture Helps Boost Fertility
To put it simply, acupuncture may boost female fertility by doing these three things:
*Regulating hormone function
*Increasing blood flow to the uterus and the ovaries thus, helping to relax muscles and improving the chance of an embryo implanting
*Helping to relieve stress and making a woman feel more relaxed
Associated Risks of Using Acupuncture for Fertility
When it comes to risks, you would be glad to know that there are minimal risks in using acupuncture. Some doctors are sceptical about this treatment since there is little scientific evidence to support the claim that it helps in fertility, but there are some medical experts who believe that it can help by stimulating muscle and nerve tissues. It also helps in relieving a woman of stress, which is a key to boosting fertility.
If you want to know more about your options or if you want to learn more about acupuncture, you can give us a call at 416.924.4666.
