Acupuncture

[kbear4211]

I am at the beginning of my 2nd cycle of IVF. Unfortunately, my first resulted in a BFN. When discussing my next protocol with my RE, I asked if Acupuncture helps, and without a moment of hesitation, I was told "Yes".

I have my first Acupuncture appointment tomorrow. I plan to go at least once a week. The Acupunturist that I am going to told me that they have great success when they do treatments up to and before and after the actual embryo transfer.

From what I have read on several threads of this forum, there are differing opinions on when the treatments should stop, before ER or all the way up until ET. Since my Acupuncturist wants to do two treatments the day of transfer, I was just wondering on other's experiences. I did ask my RE about the treatments on the day of transfer and was told that would be fine.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[kildean23]

This was my 1st IVF cycle and I decided to do accupuncture. I went 2x a week for about 3 weeks leading to ER. I also went the night before ER and then went the night before Transfer. I would of went on transfer day but my accupuncture doc was at his office out of town that day. I just received my 1st beta yesterday and it was 1255 so I am definitely pregnant. I encourage you to do the accupuncture. It is very relaxing, relieves stress which is very imortant and it gets the blood flowing to the uterus.

[MrsR]

I plan to book my first acupuncture appt tomorrow after I have my first IVF appt sorting out the paperwork.

[ARG]

Hi,

I went for Acupuncture on my 2nd IVF Cycle. I am now 17 weeks pregnant. Of course there is no evidence to prove or disprove whether it works or not but I think that it is definately very relaxing and if you do everything possible to give you the best chance of conceiving then thats all anyone can ask. Good Luck

[2ndtimer]

I was told by my MD that the most important time to have acupuncture is approx an hour before the transfer(or as close as possible). It helps to relax the uterus and it certainly helped to relax me. I did not do the acupuncture after the transfer because I was told to be on bedrest for 3 days afterwards. I also had acu about twice a week during the stim meds.
I can't prove it scientifically, but I really feel that the acupuncture made this last cycle easier to tolerate and helped to get me my BFP finally.
Good Luck,
2ndtimer

[kbear4211]

Well, I loved the Acupuncture. I thought it would be like a hundred needles, but it was more like 20. After the Acupuncturist left the room, I thought to myself, "This does not seem relaxing to me". Well, then it just started to take me over and I was very relaxed.

I will be doing Acupuncture once a week up until the transfer and twice that day, once before and once after.

Thanks for all your advice.

[Anie]

Hi.

I had my 1st acupuncture session yesterday. The head massage was very relaxing.

I aim to do once a week.

She asked me to ask my doctor about the lining and about some kind of cells: Gou cells, gal cells,gom cells.....something like that...

Does anybody know what is the correct word?

Thanks
Anie

[Rinnie]

The stim medication thins the lining of the uterus...thats why they really monitor the lining and have us on huge doses of progesterone.
Acupuncture sends blood to the uterus & helps build up the lining, so doing for the weeks leading up to ER does wonders. It also helps stop uterine contractions and calms it ( and you ) so it should be done before ET as well.

I am now doing the whole Chinese Medicine treatment for 3 months before my next IVF. The herbs and acu twice a week, so I'm dying to see if it works. So far I feel great!
The whole Chinese Philosophy is really interesting and I'm going to do a separate post on what I've found out because it really affects older women.

Rin