Can acupuncture treat infertility?

In today's life and work, people are becoming increasingly busy and under greater pressure, and many couples suffer from infertility. On the issue of fertility, as long as there is a problem in any link between men and women, fertility difficulties will arise. Among the complex causes of infertility, it is more important to accurately find the problem and deal with it in a targeted manner. Acupuncture has a good auxiliary treatment effect in the treatment of infertility.

Causes of female infertility include:

1. Ovulation disorder;

2. Fallopian tube obstruction;

3. Cervical factors;

4. Uterine diseases;

5. Ovarian diseases;

6. The body’s immune factors, etc.

Causes of male infertility include:

1. Abnormal semen;

2. Oligospermia and azoospermia;

3. Testicular dysplasia and epididymitis;

4. Varicocele;

5. Factors such as sexual dysfunction.

Acupuncture helps fertilized eggs implant

In 2002, German researchers found that acupuncture could significantly increase the chances of pregnancy in a study of 160 women undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment. 42% of the women who received acupuncture became pregnant, compared to only 26% of those who did not receive acupuncture.

Since then, there have been more studies demonstrating the benefits of acupuncture for women undergoing IVF treatment. Another study (also conducted in Germany) showed that women who were undergoing IVF or intracytoplasmic oocyte injection and who received acupuncture during the second half of their menstrual cycle (the luteal phase) had higher rates of both pregnancy and ongoing pregnancy. A Danish study showed that pregnancy rates were best improved if acupuncture was performed on the day the embryo was implanted in the uterus. Their study also showed that there was no improvement in pregnancy or ongoing pregnancy rates if acupuncture treatment was repeated 2 days later.

So, how does acupuncture work? In fact, no one can completely say, but researchers believe that acupuncture may help increase blood flow to the uterus and relax muscle tissue, thereby improving the chances of successful implantation of the embryo.

Acupuncture can improve sperm count and motility

Acupuncture may also help with male infertility. Regular acupuncture treatments have been shown to increase sperm count and improve sperm motility (the ability of sperm to swim) in men with fertility problems, but the effects are not always dramatic. In order to increase the chances of pregnancy naturally, acupuncture treatment needs to increase the male's sperm count to a level that satisfies conception, which means that the male must ejaculate at least 10 to 12 million active sperm each time. But none of the men in the above studies reached this level.

However, for couples considering assisted reproductive treatment, a study published in 2005 showed that acupuncture can indeed improve sperm quality. The researchers analyzed the sperm status of men with unknown infertility before and after acupuncture treatment. They found that acupuncture was associated with a decrease in sperm structural defects and an increase in the number of normal sperm.