Fertility
Most of us who haven’t experienced the difficulty of falling pregnant may never understand the stress and anxiety associated with infertility. Couples are considered infertile if they have been trying to conceive for 12 months without success. Common factors that cause infertility include low ovarian reserves, obstruction in the reproductive organs, anovulation, polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, obesity, low sperm count and motility and genetic factors. Stress also plays a significant role in the reproductive health. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine may be able to provide relaxation, improve vital energy and blood circulation.
Pregnancy
Many women experience discomfort during pregnancy. Morning sickness, back pain, heartburn, constipation and leg cramps are some of the common ailments. Over 50% of women have morning sickness and feel nauseous maybe accompanied by vomiting during the first trimester. This is the result of the increased hormones necessary for the pregnancy. As the weight of the baby grows, your back muscles have to work harder and harder to stay upright. As a result back pain is common towards later pregnancy. Similarly the growing foetus may press on the stomach and intestines pushing contents back up the oesophagus thus causing heartburn in some women. Up to 40% of women experience constipation during pregnancy because of the surge of progesterone, reduced physical activity and the pressure of the growing uterus impacting on bowel motility. Leg cramps are also common in pregnant women possibly because of the pressure of the growing foetus on blood vessels.
Research
A systematic review (Ref: 1) of 40 randomised controlled trials involving 4247 women with infertility suggests that managing female infertility with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can improve pregnancy rates 2-fold within 3-6 month period compared with western fertility drug therapy. Addressing the health of the menstrual cycle, which is integral to TCM, appears to be crucial to successful treatment.
A clinical randomised controlled trial (Ref: 2) was conducted to study the effects of Chinese herbs combined with IVF and embryo transplantation on infertility of 433 couples at the Reproductive Centre in the Third Hospital Affiliated to Beijing University. The findings are that TCM increases endometrial thickness, improve the quality of fertility and embryo, and promote embryonic nidation, thus enhancing the success rate of IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transplantation cycle.
A randomised controlled trial (Ref: 3) was conducted at a hospital in Adelaide, Australia, of 593 women with morning sickness. The results show that acupuncture is an effective treatment for women who experience nausea and dry retching during pregnancy.
Another study (Ref:4) was undertaken to assess 61 pregnant women with back pain. The results show that acupuncture seems to be helpful for low back and pelvic pain during pregnancy.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22036524
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0254627214600893
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11843784
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15253580
