Month: June 2012

Fertility Clock Blog, My Future Baby Blog

Increasing Fertility Through Acupuncture

brigitte

Acupuncture has been shown to help women become healthier, stronger and experience less stress – and it’s been having a positive effect on helping women achieve a pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby. Especially in conjunction with IVF, the combination of the two approaches is very powerful.

Preconception care is something we use as a way to prepare the couple to achieve the best possible outcome in preparation for  IUI,  IVF or ICSI. Ideally taking 2-3 months to implement a specialized fertility-enhancing diet, having fertility acupuncture sessions, taking herbal formulas if needed, or supplements for specific conditions such as thin lining, poor egg or sperm quality, stress or underlying auto-immune or thyroid imbalances, etc. can make a huge difference in the outcome as well as in the woman’s overall health and quality of life. Having acupuncture pre & post embryo transfer is also incredibly beneficial, increasing the chances of conception by 62%. Using acupuncture in preparation for egg freezing as well as for treating male factor infertility is also greatly beneficial. All of these approaches have a synergistic effect, and can help get a patient achieve optimal health, and improve conditions which might later be a huge hindrance to the success of an IVF protocol.

Although Western medicine has a lot to offer in terms of thoroughly analyzing and treating specific issues in both female and male factor infertility, adding in other modalities, like acupuncture, herbal formulas, nutritional guidance and certain lifestyle modifications and exercises can enhance the patient’s health and vitality, as well as increase the chances of conception and giving birth to a healthy child.  Another benefit is that these more Eastern-based approaches tend to have a huge stress-relieving effect on the patient, increasing a sense of well-being and decreasing the negative cortisol-stress response which often interferes with trying to conceive and fertility treatments. In terms of IUI,  IVF or ICSI, acupuncture has a positive influence on these processes for several reasons – it may improve egg quality and effect ovarian reserve, as well as improve a patient’s response to gonadotropins and outcomes for poor responders (Quintero et al., 2003). 

Acupuncture can also improve endometrial thickness and quality of lining (Yu, et al., 2006). Some studies have also shown that acupuncture is beneficial as it enhances oocyte maturation, uterine perfusion, improves implantation, encourages ongoing pregnancies and reduces miscarriages. In terms of supplements and herbal formulas, oral antioxidants were shown to improve ICSI outcome where sperm had DNA damage if taken for at least 2 months (Fertility Sterility, 2006).

This holistic approach, including nutritional changes and herbal formulas when warranted, have been shown to treat various imbalances related to infertility, as well as improving overall disease states and vitality, effecting the whole body, potentially helping to regulate hormones and leave a patient more physically receptive to any Western treatment. InChina, want-to-be-parents eat specific foods and attempt to clear up any health issues before trying to conceive, as it is believed that this creates the best chances for conception. Moreover, it helps to create not only a pregnancy, but a healthy child, the ultimate goal. According to epigenetic studies, we now know that what the parents eat and what they experience as stressors does indeed effect not only if they will conceive, but the health of the child when they do. So it benefits the parents to get a jump start and begin the process early, continuing a healthy diet and lifestyle before Western treatment, during IVF treatment and other reproductive procedures, and throughout the pregnancy as well.

This integrative treatment is helping women to conceive healthy children – evidence that integration is a potential key in building families in the healthiest way possible.

By Virginia Prior, DAOM, L.Ac., MATCM, Dipl.O.M. (FABORM)
Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

To schedule an acupuncture appointment, or for more information, contact Virginia at:
virginiaprior@gmail.com
(310)930-5328

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Failed IVF attempt tied to depression, anxiety

brigitte

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Women who are stressed and anxious before in vitro fertilization (IVF) are no less likely to have a baby, new research suggests. But if the treatment fails, it may take a toll on their mental health.

In two separate studies in the journal Fertility and Sterility, researchers found women with anxiety or depression symptoms were just as likely as others to become pregnant.

One study focused on women undergoing IVF and the other followed women trying to conceive naturally.

“Our findings are consistent with the most recent research,” said Lauri A. Pasch, a clinical psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco Center for Reproductive Health, and the lead researcher on the IVF study.

Based on that body of research, she told Reuters Health, “I think we can safely say to women, “Stop worrying about being worried.”

Women should not feel pressured to be a “good IVF patient” who’s free of stress, Pasch said. And they should not blame themselves if they feel stressed out and their IVF attempt fails.

The other study, from the UK, looked at 339 women who were trying to become pregnant naturally.

Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Menopausal women could ‘work out’ their hot flashes

brigitte

Menopausal women who exercise may experience fewer hot flashes in the 24 hours following physical activity, according to health researchers.

In general, women who are relatively inactive or are overweight or obese tend to have a risk of increased symptoms of perceived hot flashes, noted Steriani Elavsky, assistant professor of kinesiology at Penn State.

Perceived hot flashes do not always correspond to actual hot flashes. Most previous research analyzed only self-reported hot flashes. This is the first study known to the researchers to look at objective versus subjective hot flashes.

Elavsky and colleagues studied 92 menopausal women for 15 days. The women recruited for this study were different from many earlier menopause studies, said Elavsky. In the past, women in menopause studies were experiencing severe symptoms and seeking help. They were probably not representative of the general population.

Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Supreme Court Upholds Obama’s Health-Care Law

brigitte

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday joined the Supreme Court’s liberals to save the heart of President Obama’s landmark health-care law, agreeing that the requirement for nearly all Americans to secure insurance is permissible under Congress’s taxing authority.

The court’s 5 to 4 ruling was a stunning legal conclusion to a battle that has consumed American politics for two years. Roberts’s compromise offered a dramatic victory for Obama and Democrats’ decades-long effort to enact a health-care law and a bitter defeat for Republicans and tea party activists, who had uniformly opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Drs. OZ and Roizen: Relieve menopausal symptoms

brigitte

Like the wildfires sweeping New Mexico, menopause can leave women feeling scorched and doused. Hot flashes, heart palpitations and brain fog can make daily life challenging.

Unfortunately, alarms about hormone therapy have scared many women away from a treatment that banishes symptoms. An update by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force suggests estrogen, alone or taken with progesterone, increases the risk for stroke, blood clots, and gallbladder and urinary problems. While they DO admit the recommendations don’t apply to women thinking about HT for menopausal symptoms, or those who have had a hysterectomy before age 50, they make women hesitant to take advantage of the benefits…

Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Novel Progestin Nestorone, Testosterone Promising as Transdermal Male Contraceptive

brigitte

HOUSTON – Applying transdermal gels containing off-label testosterone and an experimental nonandrogenic progestin showed promise as a form of reversible contraception for men in a randomized, double-blind, controlled pilot study in 99 men.

Healthy male volunteers were randomized in three groups to apply gels containing 10 g of testosterone plus placebo or testosterone plus either 8 mg or 12 mg of Nestorone, an investigational synthetic nonandrogenic progestin. They were asked to apply the gels daily for 20-24 weeks, and 56 complied.

Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

STC Teen Pregnancy report

brigitte

26 JUNE 2012 | LONDON – A new report from Save the Children UK – Every Woman’s Right: How Family Planning Saves Lives – highlights the fact that girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy than women in their 20s. Babies born to younger mums are also at far greater risk and around one million babies born to adolescent girls die every year – babies are 60% more likely to die if their mother is under 18.

Read the full report Listen to the BBC Today programme’s Sarah Montague talking to pregnant teenagers at one STC clinic in Liberia

Read full article.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Senate Panel Examines Deficiency of Infertility Services for Injured Vets

ASRM News and Research

Today, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee held a hearing on a long
list of bills intended to improve services for our nation’s veterans.
Among them was a bill introduced by the committee’s chair to improve
access to fertility counseling and treatment for veterans with a
service-connected genitourinary disability or condition incurred in the
line of duty that affects the veteran’s ability to reproduce.

Fertility Clock Headlines, Fertility Headlines

Call to action: Support contraceptives on the New No Controversy Website

brigitte

26 JUNE 2012 | A number of PMNCH partners have launched a Call to Action and Support for contraceptives. More than 200 million women in developing countries who don’t want to get pregnant lack access to contraceptives. This is a life and death crisis. Complications in pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death for women in Africa.

Contraceptives save lives. Giving women and girls access to contraceptives is transformational – families become healthier, wealthier, and better educated. Reducing unintended pregnancies leads to fewer girls dropping out of school and greater opportunity to escape poverty. Contraceptives are one of the best investments a country can make in its future… Read full article.