Women's Health

Benefits of acupuncture to women’s overall health.

Women’s Health & Acupuncture

One of Chinese Medicine’s greatest strengths is in women’s health. Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine can treat most women’s disorders from PMS, menstrual pain, PCOS, endometriosis and infertility

Jeff Shelton has received training from some of the worlds foremost Chinese Medicine Fertility Specialists and regularly treats patients undergoing fertility treatments such as IVF.

Click on the tabs below to learn more about the affects & benefits that acupunture may bring to enhance women’s health.

Acupuncture & Infertility Treatments

Acupuncture: Impact on Pregnancy Outcomes in IVF Patients 12th World Congress on Human Reproduction, Venice Italy March 2005

Materials and Methods: In this study 130 IVF cycles were reviewed in a retrospective fashion. Patients demographics, years infertile, age of male partners, sperm parameters, Day 3 FSH, Pulsatility Indices, Weight, BMI, infertility diagnoses, IVF treatment protocols were statistically similar for both the Controls (C) and Acupuncture (Ac) treatment groups. All patients that completed an IVF cycle (retrieval, transfer) were included. There were 82 in the C group (non acupuncture) and 48 in the Ac group. For the C vs. Ac groups a summary of their statistics are as follows: Mean Age was 32.6 vs. 32.7, Day 3 FSH was 5.5 vs. 6.4, Pulsatility Indices for right and left uterine arteries were 1.5 and 1.2 vs. 1.4 and 1.0; Sperm counts were 69 vs. 67 million/ml; Sperm motility (%) were 48 vs. 53%, and Sperm morphologies were 6 % normal vs. 7%. Results: Pregnancy rates for the Ac group were statistically similar, although numerically higher, versus C (50% v 45% at P < 0.05). Ac miscarriage rates (SAB) were statistically lower than the C (8 % vs. 11% at p < 0.01). Live Births were significantly better in the Ac v C groups (42% v 38%). A surprising observation was that multiples pregnancies were significantly lower in the Ac vs. C groups (17 % vs. 22%). Average eggs retrieved were statistically similar 15 vs. 15 for Ac and C respectively

Acupuncture for Stress Reduction

The use of acupuncture for reducing anxiety and stress possibly through its sympathoinhibitory property and impact on ß-endorphin levels has been reviewed (67, 68), and the efficacy of acupuncture in depression has also been studied (69). Because the pharmacological side effects of anxiolytic and antidepressant drugs on infertility treatment outcome are largely unknown, acupuncture may provide an excellent alternative for stress reduction in women undergoing infertility treatment.

Acupuncture can help Poor Responders

Factors that demonstrated significance were: Length of time infertile, Peak FSH, PI for total group without MRW; PI for MRW groups reversed this (Table 2) and finally average: Sperm Morphology, Peak E2, Peak P4 prior to HcG: and endometrial thickness. PR before Wilcox ranking were the same: 40% v 38%. MRW analysis revealed FSH, Length of time trying to get pregnant, Sperm Morphology and E2 levels as significant: 6.5, 4.1, 4.0 and 1.6 respectively. When the Ac group was modified (15 Ac patient dropped), PI was elevated from 1.76 to 1.94 resulting in a significant elevation compared to the Non-Ac group, p < 0.01. Also PR changed from 40% before to 53% after and this value was significantly greater than the Non-Ac group (38%), p < 0.01. Conclusions: Significant increases in pregnancy outcomes were con- firmed by this study and the data uniquely supported the advantage of acupuncture in patients with normal PI (prior studies were done on patient with PI > 3). We also demonstrated that both acupuncture treatment protocols could be used together with a synergistic effect. Finally, this study is the first to demonstrate that the use of acupuncture in patients with poor prognoses (elevated Peak FSH, longer history of infertility, poor sperm morphology) can achieve similar pregnancy rates to normal prognosis patients.

Reduction of blood flow impedance in the uterine arteries of infertile women with electro-acupuncture

Elisabet Stener-Victorin[1.4], Urban Waldenström[2], Sven A. Andersson[3] and Matts Wikland[2] [1]Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology [2]Fertility Centre Scandinavia. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and [3]Department of Physiology University of Gothenburg. S-413 45 Gothenburg, Sweden [4]To whom correspondence should be addressed: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Kvinnokliniken Sahlgrensh sjukhuset, S- 413 45 Golhenburg, Sweden Source: European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology

Successful in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer demand optimal endometrial receptivity at the time of implantation.

These findings suggest that a series of EA( electro –acupuncture) treatments increases the uterine artery blood flow. Another effect observed in this study was the signifieantly inereased STFH(skin temperature forehead) during the EA treatments.

Acupuncture Treatment For Infertile Women Undergoing Intracytoplasmic Sperm injection Sandra L. Emmons, MD Phillip Patton, MD Source: Medical Acupuncture, A Journal For Physicians By Physicians Spring / Summer 2000- Volume 12 / Number 2 “Aurum Nostrum Non Est Aurum Vulg

The use of acupuncture to stimulate follicle development in women undergoing in vitro fertilization.

RESULTS  None of the women achieved pregnancy during the non-acupuncture cycles. Three of the women (patients 1-3) clearly recruited more follicles with acupuncture than prior to acupuncture. For the 3 who responded, the mean number of follicles with acupuncture was 11.3 vs 3.9 prior to acupuncture (P=.005). All 3 achieved chemical pregnancy, but only 1 continued the pregnancy past the 1st trimester.

On average, significantly more follicles were recruited with acupuncture than without

Acupuncture can decrease the side effects of Fertility Medications

 Something I see daily is acupuncture decreasing the “Lupron Headache”.  Once the patient is off the table the headache is usually gone or much less.

Acupuncture is safe

In fact acupuncture is so safe it can be used during pregnancy to treat  these pregnancy related conditions: morning sickness, anxiety, tiredness, backpain, high/low blood pressure,  headache/migraine.

Acupuncture can be very relaxing

Most people fall asleep or enter a deep relaxed state during  acupuncture.