Your journey to fertility can be filled with challenges - especially, if you’ve been diagnosed as infertile! Whether the infertility is a result of a hormone imbalance or not, you have likely tried every measure possible to achieve conception. From timing intercourse around ovulation, to taking hormone pills, or altering your diet to improve the alkalinity of your body – it seems like you’ve tried everything to get pregnant. However, you still seem to be hitting a wall with achieving conception.
Take a deep breath. You have definitely had a difficult road to travel thus far. In this article, I’m going to share a few tips that can improve your chances of fertility. I’m also going to discuss how acupuncture helps individuals achieve fertility, by getting your body to an improved state of health and well-being – raising your chances of conception even higher.
1. Stress Affects Fertility
To start, let’s talk about stress. Many of you think stress is just the norm, not realizing how much it really impacts your health. If you find your body feels tense in certain areas by the end of the work day, this is a sign that you are holding stress in the body. The fact that it’s happening more at the end of the day is also a sign of exhaustion, adrenal fatigue, or that your kidneys are weak – a key point to consider on your journey to conception. I’ll explain more in point #2.
If your body is exhausted, it is likely going to reduce your chances of becoming fertile. So breathe, do some yoga, control the amount of stress you take on personally. This is a good place to start.
2. Kidney Health & Reproductive Health
Your kidneys are responsible for the health of your reproductive organs in Traditional Chinese Medicine. So, if you’re infertile as a result of imbalanced progesterone/estrogen levels, low follicle count, or a uterus that doesn’t seem to holding the embryo to term – there is likely something off with your kidneys. Here’s a list you can check to see how your kidneys are doing:
1. You experience tight shoulders, or headaches at the end of the day
2. You have lower back pain, knee pain, or foot pain
3. You feel exhausted between 3pm-7pm
4. The embryo is not implanting properly – Your body can’t hold the embryo in place
5. Your estrogen and progesterone levels are imbalanced
6. Low follicle count
7. You experience slight menopausal symptoms (night sweats/hot flashes)
If you experience two or more of the above symptoms, it’s a sign that your kidneys and reproductive system could use a boost. Here are some tips:
1. Keep your legs warm all the time – the kidney meridian is an energetic pathway that connects to your kidneys, but also runs down the legs and into the bottom of your feet. Keeping this area warm, helps preserve the energy in your kidneys.
2. Eat more goji berries – Goji berries are used in formulas of Traditional Chinese Medicine, but are also considered a normal day-to-day food safe for consumption. I usually recommend putting a tablespoon of them in a cup of hot water, letting it steep like tea, and then drinking the water and eating the berries. You should try and do this once in the morning, and around 3pm-7pm. This will help your overall energy as well as strengthening the kidneys – and therefore your reproductive organ health.
3. Avoid overworking yourself – mentally, and physically. That means don’t do intense workouts that drain you out 5 times a week. Exercise is good for you, but when your body is already exhausted, replenishing your reserves is more important than exertion. This leads me to my last point.
4. Get plenty of sleep – The average person needs 8 hours of sleep a night. If you’re not hitting this number, and you’re still feeling tired all the time, try getting more sleep.
For those who are looking for a more personalized approach – I would recommend acupuncture for fertility. Not only do acupuncturists take into consideration results from your obstetrician/gynecologist, but we would also be looking to take a personalized treatment plan according to your body’s imbalances. With acupuncture, we would be gauging your reproductive health and wellbeing by checking your pulse, having a look at your tongue, and checking your abdomen for any signs of organ imbalances. The advantage here is that we would be evaluating all facets of your health and well being that may be creating road blocks in your path to becoming fertile.
That means if your sleep is off, or you have other problems in your health, we would be working on resolving these issues as well. It may not seem important to you, but clearing these issues is critical to achieving fertility. The body can’t be forced to focus on fertility if it’s constantly having to deal with unresolved issues in your health.
Typically we recommend trying acupuncture for 4-6 months. During this timeframe we would constantly support you in achieving conception and evaluating where your body is at on a weekly basis. In terms of areas that Acupuncture is performed, we would typically do acupuncture points on the lower back or abdomen, and legs as these points are great for supporting reproductive health, improving uterine lining, and regulating hormones.
We have two acupuncture clinic locations here in Toronto. Our Downtown location is at (Peter & Adelaide St), and our Forest hill location is at (St. Clair & Warren Road).
So if you’re interested in taking a more personalized approach with your fertility journey, you can book an acupuncture treatment here. We’ll go through your health history, discuss any issues you may be experiencing, and start working on your fertile health from an acupuncture perspective!