Infertility and Acupuncture in Western Medicine: Why Are We Not Pregnant

Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine has been shown to be very effective in helping couples conceive a child naturally. Acupuncture in particular, increases the success rate in pregnancy for couples undergoing IVF.

So first, let's look at infertility from a western medical standpoint. The Chinese medical perspective and treatment methods to infertility will follow.

Infertility is the inability to produce a child. While it can be present in one or both partners, it can be a temporary and reversible condition. Generally, the cause may be physical, including immature sexual organs, abnormalities of the reproductive system, hormonal imbalance, and dysfunction or faults in other organ systems, or it may result from psychologic or emotional problems.

At the first point of contact with patient, infertility is medically defined as the inability of a couple to conceive after one year of unprotected intercourse even though both parties are healthy. It is classified as primary and secondary infertility.

Primary infertility is when a woman has not previously conceived.

Secondary infertility is failure to conceive after a previous pregnancy that may or may not have gone to full term. In both types, the reason for the infertility may not be entirely hers.

Incidence of Infertility

Infertility affects one in six, or 15%, of Australian couples of reproductive age. This is shared fairly equally between men and women as follows:

• Infertility involving women accounts for some 40% of all cases

• Infertility involving men accounts for another 40%

• Infertility involving both the man and the woman represents another 10%

• The remaining 10 per cent of infertility are idiopathic causes, which means that the cause is not readily explained.

It is often quickly assumed that the problem rests entirely with the female. It is important to keep in mind that about 40% of infertility cases are due to an anomaly with the male, where sperm disorders accounts for the majority of that. My observation is this -- I am seeing a rise in the number of infertility cases caused by the male.

So although it is common for women to attend to this problem in clinic, early assessment of both partners is essential to avoid unnecessary investigations and delay. And of course, it should include establishing the fact that the couple is having intercourse when the woman is likely to be fertile.

So why aren’t we pregnant?

Infertility can be categorized into Hormonal and Structural (that is obstructive) types, as follows:

• Hormonal factors that affect ovulation account for some 41% of the cases

• Abnormalities of the fallopian tubes account for some 32%

• Uterine abnormalities account for some 16%, for example abnormal cervical mucus

• Abnormalities of the cervix account for some 5%, and

• Other causes represent some 5%.

There are however a number of other causes of infertility that should be considered, for example:

• Age-related factors

• Eating disorders (women)-- here acupuncture is very effective at correcting the disorder.

• An-ovulatory menstrual cycles

• Endometriosis

• Abnormalities of the uterus (myomas) or cervical obstruction

• Chronic disease such as diabetes

• Multiple sexual partners – this can increase the risk for infertility, especially if a sexually transmitted disease (STDs) is contracted. A past history of pelvic inflammatory disease or a sexually transmitted disease, after a single episode, can lead to 10% to15% of women to become infertile,

Acupuncture and in particular Chinese herbs are excellent at treating these causes of infertility.

The Male in Infertility

The male should be examined for the following:

• a varicocele, which is dilation or swelling of a vein of the venous complex of the spermatic cord causing pronounced pain when the male is standing. It is common in men between 15-25 years of age and affects the left spermatic cord more than the right.

• testicular abnormality:

-- a past history of orchitis, an inflammation of one or both testes that can be caused by mumps, syphilis or tuberculosis, or -- epididymitis, which is inflammation of the epididymis, one of a pair of long tighly coiled ducts that carry sperm.

• He can also expect a semen analysis to be performed therefore he should be prepared to give a semen sample.

Diethylstilbestol (DES) Exposure in Infertility

A past medical history that includes Diethylstilbestol (DES) exposure in either men or women should be considered.

In the 1950’s and early 1960’s, DES (a hormone) was prescribed to pregnant women. It was discovered many years later that the daughters of the women who received DES were at high risk of a variety of problems such as infertility, premature labour and cancer of the vagina and cervix.

To find out how Acupuncture and Chinese medicine help with primary and secondary infertility, click here.

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