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You want to get pregnant, but it’s just not happening.

I know, it’s one of the most stressful things that can happen to a couple.

Usually, women visit our Toronto fertility clinic to consult about their condition. That’s fine, but ideally, the couple should be together when visiting the doctor because it takes two to make a baby.

Naturopathic doctors provide highly individualized holistic treatments to combat the causes of infertility. This can include herbs and nutrients, dietary changes, regular exercise and stress management.

Naturopathic Medicine, Natural Fertility Clinic

  • Nutrition. Working on both partners’ nutrition and moving to a whole foods fertility diet is important to regulate the woman’s hormones and increase the sperm quality of the man – avoiding refined sugars, processed foods, favoring organic foods as much as possible, specifically meat and dairy products.
  • Stress. Stress is highly linked to infertility. Patients often worry about their condition, which contributes even more to their inability to conceive. Using breathing techniques, meditation, yoga, or just talking to each other and learning to enjoy intimacy together. Doing this without having to think about conception – these are ways that you can increase your fertility as well.
  • Botanical medicine. As a naturopathic doctor, I use a lot of botanical medicine to help regulate hormones. And the side effects of that are not too drastic. So people find that to be much more gentle and beneficial in helping with balancing and regulating the cycles.
  • Charting the cycle. I talk to women quite a bit about charting their menstrual cycles, becoming aware of when they’re ovulating, what their basal body temperature is. And finding out how their cycle correlates to their hormones. And that way they become more empowered about knowing when it is that they should be trying to conceive.
  • Acupuncture. Is excellent for in vitro fertilization and for fertility in general. But there are specific protocols for in vitro fertilization to help implantation occur better while the treatment process is going on.

Acupuncture For Fertility

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 workday, 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’re feeling 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, 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. They’re 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.

About Acupuncture

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. We do this 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 roadblocks 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.

As for where Acupuncture is performed, we would typically do acupuncture points on the lower back or abdomen, and legs. These points are great for supporting reproductive health, improving uterine lining, and regulating hormones.

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.

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