Stress is a key factor leading to infertility
In one leading study , published in the journal Fertility & Sterility , German researchers demonstrated that acupuncture could help raise assisted reproduction therapy success rates . Compared with women who received standard IVF , 26.3 percent of whom conceived in one cycle , those who received a combination of acupuncture and IVF had a 42.5 percent success rate .
But is the procedure safe ? A recent paper looking at the safety of acupuncture in pregnant Korean woman identified “ no significant difference in delivery outcomes ” including preterm delivery and stillbirth between pregnancies with acupuncture therapy and those without . It concluded that acupuncture “ may be a safe therapeutic modality without an adverse delivery outcome .”
In addition to acupuncture , Ting ’ s clinic also prescribes Chinese medicines , though this is done only with the consent of patients ’ IVF doctors and when they are not using hormone pills and taking injections to prevent contraindications . This means they can use Chinese medicine before injections and after egg retrieval .
There are four main causes of infertility in people today – stress , irregular lifestyles , unbalanced diets , and work-life imbalance . Each of these can affect the menstrual cycle and the quality of sperm , according to TCM doctors .
“ Of these , stress is the most common . Coping with a fast-paced life and at the same time balancing family , friends , and society is always stressful . This causes our body health to go haywire and fall into imbalance ,” said Ting . “ What we do when patients approach us is , through consultation and observation , find the root cause of the imbalance – it ’ s like playing hide and seek .”
But sometimes the game cannot be won with just one strategy alone , which leads the most avowed followers of TCM to the doors of Western fertility clinics .
Given their vastly different approaches , it ’ s perhaps ironic that TCM , with its thousands of years of history , can work so well alongside fertility centres , the embodiments of modern Western medicine in their use of genetics and breakthrough technology .
Yet it ’ s become increasingly popular for couples experiencing fertility problems to seek treatment from both sides in tandem , accentuating the complementary nature of TCM .
Many fertility centres in Southeast Asia now have
GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com APRIL 2021
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