My Infertility Journey: Acupuncture (Part 5)
Obie Editorial Team
After a year of tracking ovulation with extreme precision and no results, I decided to try a different tactic. I've long been a fan of acupuncture. I got it once a week for two years straight to help me with relaxation in my mid-20s. It is better than a massage for relaxation and I only stopped getting it because my acupuncturist moved away and I was reluctant to start again with someone new. However, I'd been reading that acupuncture can enhance fertility. So I called a local acupuncturist who was personally recommended to me by my primary care doctor and decided to give it a try.
She immediately put me at ease about trying someone new and regaled me with tales of all the pregnancies she'd helped her clients achieve. Some of these people even went to her after trying and failing at conventional fertility treatments and got pregnant through acupuncture. So I was encouraged. We did one treatment a week starting with the first week of my menstrual cycle. Unlike the relaxation acupuncture which focused on my head and ears, this time the needles were placed around my ovaries and uterus.
She also obtained a jar of ground Chinese herbs from a specialty pharmacy and told me to take a spoonful in water once a day to enhance my fertility. I did this exactly as she instructed. As my periods were regular but light, lasting only 2 to 3 days on average, she suggested my uterine lining may not be thick enough for an egg to implant after fertilization. Her recommendation to correct this was to eat "warming" foods, a Chinese medicine term. She gave me a chart that listed them and I incorporated them into my diet.
The acupuncture, herbs, and warming foods definitely did something. My cervical mucus was thicker and more abundant than it had been since I was in high school. This was a good sign of increased fertility. I was enthusiastic about intercourse that month. And once again, I still didn't conceive. It was time to try something new.
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