Fertility challenges and some answers

What are the benefits of using acupuncture when treating a PCOS patient?

PCOS is both an endocrinological and metabolic disorder. The patient may present with polycystic ovaries, hyperandrogenism, hirsutism, and hyperinsulinemia. Also, PCOS patients have difficulty conceiving. One of the reasons is anovulation. In addition, the quality of the egg is very often compromised, since there is too much testosterone in the follicle. This acts as an anti-estrogen and therefore the eggs lack proper nutrition. In fact, the PCOS population experiences more spontaneous abortions than the non-PCOS population.

Acupuncture and herbal medicine are ‘regulators’. They reduce what is in excess and supplement what is diminished. In the PCOS patient, we want to reduce mean testosterone, increase follicular estrogen, regulate the menstrual cycle, and help facilitate conception. Acupuncture and herbs often achieve this goal.

Another goal of the TCM practitioner is to counsel patients on lifestyle. If a PCOS patient is morbidly obese, she may face gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, or eclampsia. This can cause serious health problems for mom and baby. Through lifestyle advice, it is often possible to help these types of patients lose weight.

Obesity will also raise estrogen levels which, over time, can contribute to cancer and infertility. Hormones must be balanced. Too much estrogen is just as harmful as not enough. Through the regulating effects of acupuncture and herbs, weight can be lost, hormones can be rebalanced, menstruation can be regulated, and conception can occur. I am not suggesting that acupuncture and herbal medicine are the holy grail. It can help some people, sometimes; like IVF.

What are the benefits of using acupuncture when treating a patient with endometriosis?

Endometriosis is a proinflammatory cytokine disease. In other words, there are inflammatory factors wreaking havoc on the reproductive system.

Although endometriosis is a disease that occurs outside the uterus, inflammatory processes work their way into the uterine cavity altering the lining and environment. This in itself is the main biological factor of infertility. There are also physical problems. For example, tubal adhesions may occur making conception through intercourse or IUI impossible.

IVF is essential in such cases. Many patients with endometriosis also have activated NK cells. These cells are meant to attack cancer cells in the uterus. But in patients with endometriosis, these Nk cells often mistake the embryo for a cancer cell and attack and kill it.

Even after laparoscopic surgery, the patient may STILL have endometriosis. Here’s why: Endometriotic lesions come in various colors; brown, red, purple, power-burn, etc. This tells the surgeon “this is endo-resect”. The problem is that some endometriosis tissue looks exactly like normal tissue. So the surgeon can’t even see this tissue, let alone remove it. In my opinion, even after a laparoscopy, it must be assumed that the patient may still have endometriosis.

In cases of endometriosis (always after laparoscopy!) our objective is to try to reduce the inflammatory processes that may still be manifesting in the uterus and try to regulate immune function. One protein that is a marker of poor fertility outcomes and is often seen in endometriosis patients is BCL6. BCL6 in some medical circles is what is believed to cause infertility in the endometriosis patient. By regulating immune function and suppressing inflammation, BCL6 can be downregulated and will improve the ability to conceive.

What are the benefits of using acupuncture when treating a patient with sperm abnormalities?

A typical semen analysis looks at count, volume, concentration, morphology and motility, and ph. They all come back normal and the wife is 100% normal and she’s 27 and they can’t conceive? Why not? One possible reason is a “hidden pathology” that is often not analyzed. The pathology is the fragmentation of sperm DNA.

The common consensus among reproductive endocrinologists is that the only barrier to fertilization caused by DNA fragmentation is that the sperm cannot penetrate the egg. The patient is treated through ICSI (the sperm is injected directly into the egg to generate fertilization). Often these cases end with no pregnancy or a miscarriage. In my opinion, it is not advisable to force poor quality sperm into an egg and expect a good result. Interestingly, some of these cases end with live births. But many don’t.

Acupuncture can strongly improve the hemodynamics of the tests, the supply of oxygen, hormones, nutrients and electrolytes. Acupuncture also helps to facilitate the excretion of waste or dead cells from the tests. This can improve testicular function and significantly reduce sperm DNA fragmentation. Taking antioxidants is also extremely important in these cases, as there is a tendency for these men to have high levels of oxidative stress in the testicular environment, which can significantly damage sperm.

What are the benefits of using acupuncture to relieve stress for couples experiencing fertility problems?

Stress is an interesting and uncertain topic when it comes to infertility cases. Yes; all parties involved are stressed. They want a child and cannot conceive. But does stress really contribute to infertility? I’m not sure. Here’s why: In any war zone, anywhere in the world, at any time in history, the most horrible, stressful, indescribable things happen. But children are born in these war zones every day. I know for a fact that stress can negatively affect sperm count, but I’m not sure about the effect on fertility in the female patient. However, acupuncture is excellent for relieving stress, which, at the very least, will leave the couple feeling better, stronger, healthier, and better able to face the difficult road ahead.

What are the benefits of using acupuncture when treating a patient who has low ovarian reserve and poor egg quality?

Acupuncture is very effective in improving blood flow to any part of the body that the doctor wishes. For example, if a patient has ‘tennis elbow’ (lateral epicondylitis) and you insert needles near and into the elbow, it will send a signal of healing immunological substances to the site to repair the damage. This is the case with the ovaries. We can stimulate blood to the ovaries by directly stimulating the delivery of oxygen, nutrients, electrolytes and hormones while also removing dead cells from the ovaries. This will not, under any circumstances, provide the woman with more eggs, but can often improve the quality of the eggs. This is very important.

Remember, in the IVF setting an egg is retrieved, fertilized, and the subsequent embryo is transferred to the uterus, but… the reproductive endocrinologist can only work with the materials presented to him. So if the quality of the egg is poor but a blastocyst is formed, the transfer will occur and pregnancy will not occur. If the quality of the ovum is improved through acupuncture and/or herbal medicine, there will be an evident increase in the chances of a successful outcome.

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