My journey with fertility acupuncture began just a few months into my acupuncture course when one of my friends was struggling to conceive with IVF. We were talking, and I just happened to say that I believed I might be able to help her. She’d had three embryos implanted and failed, and she was on her last embryo, no pressure then for a novice acupuncturist! My teacher and mentor Chris Davies had been saying that we should take on any cases that come to us because we only get what we can handle. So that was it, the start of my fertility acupuncture journey.
I worked with her twice a week for two months leading up to her next embryo implant. This time she was successful, and she went on to have a beautiful baby girl. Like so many stories of infertility three months after the birth, believing that she couldn’t get pregnant naturally, she found out she was indeed pregnant and gave birth 9 months later to a healthy baby boy!
Fertility as a specialism is, in my view, not for the feint hearted, as you work with your patients in a very intimate and emotional state. There are times when I get overwhelmed with the responsibility I feel for a good outcome, and sometimes I feel the need for some time away with a few days off, or maybe I go on a cruise! For me, each session is not just about the needles I place but about the safe space that I hold for each individual where they are seen and heard possibly for the first time in their journey. My time and space is theirs unconditionally at all times, and I feel that is the key to how successful my ladies have been, especially in the last year or so as my skills and knowledge have developed.
To be successful in supporting fertility, in my view is diagnosing the root cause and understanding the cycle and where the issues lie. There are lots of protocols out there for fertility, but if you don’t understand where the imbalances are and correct these, then it will be hit-and-miss as to whether you are successful. I have found that there are several common diagnoses where fertility issues arise including Blood Stasis, Liver Qi Deficiency, Blood Deficiency, Damp and Kidney Qi Deficiency. For me the biggest issue I find is Kidney Qi Deficiency, often where there have been previous miscarriages this is the principal cause. However, most cases have multiple causes and therefore these cases can be more complex to treat, but I always begin with the Kidney Deficiency.
Fertility is not just about the points though, you have to tackle lifestyle, stress and diet as well in order to support and balance the system. By the time patients come to us as acupuncturists, they have usually spent many months tracking their cycle and going down the rabbit hole of supplements and research, and often the wrong research such as old wives’ tales and hearsay, and they can be totally at their wits end with it all. We then have to bring them back up out of the hole to give them hope and help with their stress. I always give patients a list of foods to support their imbalances that they can incorporate into their everyday diet, so they are tackling the issues from the inside too. I find that the women are very open to this idea, the men less so, unfortunately.
In my practice, I have never been able to get the male partners to engage with acupuncture. They often don’t ‘believe’ in acupuncture and often they don’t believe it’s their responsibility, especially if they have had a sperm test that has come back as within the normal range. The issue with that, is they could be at the bottom of the normal range, and we would like them to be at the top of that range, especially when they are having issues conceiving. To get around that, and to get them more involved with the process, I give them magnets to place on SP8 each night, I found that this is one thing they will engage with as it’s easy to do and doesn’t interfere with their daily life.
The women that I work with often have no-one they can talk to about what’s going on, as they don’t want friends and family to know they are struggling. To help them with this, I created a private, hidden Facebook group just for my patients where they can chat to other women about anything. This has been invaluable for them, and it enables me to share information with them all in one place. They arrange meet-ups occasionally, and they bring along their babies too, strong friendships have formed through this group as they are all on the same journey but with different stories to tell.
I have no idea why my specialism has become fertility, I didn’t seek it out, but I think it is more than just the acupuncture, it’s about the safe space, time, and compassion my patients receive. It’s about my passion for these women and their journey, and wanting to help them to realise their dreams of becoming a mother and having a family. Last year (2022) I worked with 23 women, 19 of them had positive results and have now got their babies in their arms or are growing their babies as we speak. The other 4 are still waiting for theirs, I believe they will get there though, it just takes time.
I am not the ‘expert’ in fertility, I still have so much to learn, and I believe that any of us can work with fertility if we are willing to put in the time and energy it takes to do this. I love working with other acupuncturists to help them with their fertility cases, but I will always ask if they have done their diagnosis and what their plan is with this! I won’t give them the answers because I don’t have them when I don’t know their patient, sometimes I don’t have the immediate answers myself with my own patients, but if I can help I will.
Fertility is the most rewarding modality, being part of someone’s life at the most stressful time is hard, but worth every minute. As an example as I write this a message came through from one of my patients “Just a warning I’m emotional today but stressed about it all if I’m totally honest!” and my answer was “Don’t’ worry I’ve got you!”
If you get asked to work with fertility, take time to consider if you have the time and compassion in you to do this and if you do, then go for it, you won’t regret it!
by Paula Dean Lic.Ac.TCM MAA RBAF – Acupuncturist – Enpointe Therapy Clinic (AKA “The Fertility Fairy”)
