August 31, 2006 by William Loeliger, MD
Infertility is a condition for which many women (and men) are turning to alternative practitioners. There are several reasons for this. Women in general are more likely to take advantage of alternative practitioners. Infertility is a condition that crosses into every aspect of a person’s life- physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual. Conventional medicine generally only addresses the physical aspect. Many women want to exhaust all options before going to powerful medications or invasive surgical procedures. And finally for all of conventional medicine’s successes, as many as 50% of couples facing infertility are not helped by conventional technology.
Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) have been used for the treatment of infertility and other women’s health problems for thousands of years. In traditional Chinese society, failure to produce children, especially sons to carry on the family tradition, was regarded as a personal disaster of the highest magnitude. References to treatment for infertility date back to Chinese medical literature from 11 A.D. TCM developed over thousands of years from observing the cycles of nature and their effect on human health. The concepts of oriental medicine are based on polar forces of heaven and earth, active and passive, light and dark, heating and cooling, moistening and drying. All of these are aspects of Yin and Yang- their interplay creates all energy, matter, and the dynamic movement of life.
Treatment in TCM may include one or more of the following: herbal medicine, acupuncture, moxibustion (the heating of an acupuncture point by burning of the herb moxa), cupping, tui na (massage), qi gong (movement and breathing exercises to strengthen qi), electrical stimulation of acupuncture points, and nutrition and life style counseling. The effects of acupuncture and TCM are to regulate menses, promote ovulation, reduce endometrioses, increase sperm counts and motility, and to strengthen and balance one’s general health. TCM can be used either alone or integrated with conventional ART technologies to improve success rates.
