Acupuncture for IVF

In this blogpost, Lily Lai PhD, an acupuncture expert based in Hale, Altrincham in Manchester, talks about the ways in which acupuncture can help you during your next IVF treatment cycle and when you should expect to undergo acupuncture to optimise your chances of success.

Acupuncture and IVF support

Acupuncture is one of the most popular treatments fertility patients use alongside traditional IVF or ICSI treatments. This is thanks to an article published in the British Medical Journal in 2008 by an American research team which concluded that acupuncture helped to increase the chance of IVF success by a whopping 65%. Given the relatively low success rates of IVF (just 32% for women under 35), it's no wonder patients are interested in finding other ways to improve their chances of IVF success.

How does acupuncture help with IVF?

There's been a lot of scientific research carried out into how acupuncture can help patients going through IVF treatment and I’ve seen firsthand the very real and immediate ways in which acupuncture can support my IVF patients. For example it can be used to help:

• Regulate your ovulation and your periods - particularly useful if you have irregular or no periods, which can be commonly associated with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

• Rebalance reproductive hormones - this be great for preparing you for IVF by maximising your body's potential to respond appropriately to the IVF medications

• Improve blood circulation to the pelvic area, specifically to the ovaries which is important during the stimulation phase of your IVF cycle, and also to the uterus which ensures that IVF medications are able to support appropriate thickening and development of the endometrial lining

• Reduce the effects of stress hormones on the reproductive system by regulating the sympathetic nervous system, the part of the nervous system that deals with the fight-or-flight mode

• Reduce pain and reduce need for pain relief following egg collection procedure;

• Reduce inflammation and restore the pelvic environment to as calm a state as possible following egg collection and prior to fresh embryo transfer that usually takes place 3-5 days after collection

• Improve sense of wellbeing by increasing energy levels, reducing anxiety and improving sleep quality.

Couple undergoing IVF to achieve their dream baby

When should you have acupuncture during IVF?

I personally recommend starting regular acupuncture treatments at least 3 cycles prior to you starting IVF treatment. This allows the cumulative effects of acupuncture enough time to build up in the system before you start medication and should take place once a week on the run up to IVF. During your IVF treatment, a typical treatment plan looks like this:

• Down-regulation (if on a long protocol) - once a week

• Stimulation phase - once a week

• Egg collection - once after the procedure

• Embryo transfer - once after the procedure

• Two week wait - once within 7 days of embryo transfer

Treatments with me are highly individualised to the patient and what's happening in the cycle. For example if scans indicate that your initial response to stims isn't as strong as your fertility clinic would like to see, I will usually advise a booster session during the stimulation phase to support your ovaries further. If there's a high level of anxiety during treatment, I usually recommend a pre-embryo transfer treatment to help the nervous system stay more regulated which in turn supports the uterine environment in preparation for transfer.

This means that if you've sadly failed a number of IVF treatments already and are looking for a more personalised level of support before your next cycle, we'll delve into the issues that have happened during your previous cycles and put an appropriate plan in place to ensure that you have a more tailored level of support before your next cycle starts.

If you have any other questions about how I use acupuncture during IVF treatment and how it could help you, please get in touch with me today!