The Road Less Traveled: Alternative Fertility Treatments

Acupuncture & Chinese Herbs (Traditional Chinese Medicine)

What it is:

Like all alternative therapies, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) looks at the whole person–physical, mental, and emotional–and aims to bring you back into balance, says Dana Price, D.O.M., L.Ac., founder of the Southwest Center for Oriental Medicine in Phoenix. “Basically, our goal is to stimulate the body to heal itself.”

TCM is based on the idea that energy (chi, or qi) runs along pathways called meridians in the body; when that energy is blocked or otherwise unbalanced, illness results. By stimulating the meridians at various points on the body via acupuncture needles, a practitioner can gently unblock or realign the energy. In terms of infertility, says Randine Lewis, Ph.D., author of The Infertility Cure (Little Brown, 2004), acupuncture has three main effects. “The most important for older women–those over 35–is that there are acupuncture treatments that improve blood flow to the uterus that almost nothing else can do.” Secondly, explains Lewis, a little needling can help balance hormones by stimulating acupuncture points that moderate beta endorphins in the brain. Lastly, acupuncture reduces stress. “Basically,” says Lewis, “the body does not want you to get pregnant when you are under stress.”

In addition to acupuncture, treatment with TCM also includes tongue and pulse readings, dietary recommendations, and the use of traditional Chinese herbs, usually in a blend made specifically for each patient. Some of the herbs used—saw palmetto, ginseng, chaste berry—are recognizable, but many are not commonly used in the west.

Does it Work to Boost Fertility?

Research is promising for acupuncture’s role in treating infertility. A 2002 German study published in the journal, Fertility & Sterility, found that IVF patients who received acupuncture just before embryo transfer were more likely to become pregnant: 43 percent of the acupuncture group conceived, compared with 26 percent of the controls. And, as Lewis notes, research shows that acupuncture improves blood flow to the uterus. Some evidence shows, too, that acupuncture may help improve sperm mobility and motility. And, of course, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that TCM helps women get pregnant. It’s important to realize that TCM, like all types of holistic medicine, is far more gentle, and its effects much more gradual, than western medicine’s. Lewis likes her patients to think in terms of a three-month plan.

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How to Find a Good Practitioner:

The American College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (www.acaom.edu) is developing a certification for TCM practitioners who want to specialize in treating infertility, but this probably won’t be available until 2006, says Lewis. For now, the best bet is to visit the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine’s website (www.nccaom.org) to find a licensed acupuncturist near you. Don’t ask a prospective practitioner whether they treat infertility, though, recommends Lewis, adding, “They’ll all say ‘yes’. Instead, ask them what their experience is in treating women with your specific problem. That requires them to give you a committed answer. If you use an acronym—like POF (premature ovarian failure)—and they don’t know what it stands for, they aren’t knowledgeable enough.”

Hypnotherapy

What it is:

The use of hypnosis to heal mental, emotional and even physical blocks that may be interfering with a woman’s ability to conceive is perhaps the most unorthodox of these alternative therapies. “Hypnotherapy for fertility is not yet well-recognized, but it’s up and coming,” asserts Lynsi Eastburn, co-director of the Eastburn Hypnotherapy Center in Arvada, Colorado, and founder of the Hypnosis for Fertility Program and the Certified HypnoBirthing Fertility Therapist Training Program. “I work with women and couples; a lot of times it’s unexplained infertility. We access the subconscious and are able to shift that very easily. We can also support the medical process [of infertility treatment].”

Eastburn describes many of her infertility patients as “pretty emotionally fragile and very frustrated. A lot of times a woman has been given a diagnosis that she will not get pregnant. My motto is ‘never say never.’ I’ve sometimes worked with a woman only once and she gets pregnant. Is that a coincidence, or is there something that’s able to shift?” Eastburn, who sometimes works with an acupuncturist to treat her infertility clients, asks women to commit to four to six 90-minute sessions; she starts in the first session by probing a woman’s background. “I would find out what your diagnosis is, what your experience of infertility has been, I would ask you what you’ve been through in your life.” Her focus is on strengthening a woman’s confidence in her body’s abilities. “We’re supposed to have babies and it’s supposed to be natural,” she emphasizes. “A lot of what I do is de-hypnotize people: Women are constantly being bombarded with information–that it’s hard to get pregnant after 35, for example.”

If we have an “imprint” that getting pregnant will be a problem, says Eastburn, then that works on the subconscious, or so the theory goes. “I try to replace that with a positive message.” Eastburn also asks her patients to listen to a stress reduction CD between visits.

Does it Work to Boost Fertility?

Once again, the evidence is anecdotal rather than scientific. One exception is a recent Israeli study of 185 women undergoing the embryo transfer stage of IVF: The researchers found that 28 percent of the women who underwent hypnotherapy just before the transfer became pregnant, compared with 14 percent of women who didn’t have the treatment. (However, the group that did not receive hypnosis had been trying to get pregnant for over 7 years, versus not quite 5 years for the hypnosis group. An important distinction, since the longer you go without becoming pregnant, the less likely you are to conceive.) Hypnotherapy does seem to work as stress reduction, so if you consider hypnotherapy as relaxation therapy, it may help and almost certainly won’t hurt.

How to Find a Good Practitioner:

Using hypnotherapy to treat underlying causes of infertility is still very new, which makes finding a hypnotherapist who specializes in this area difficult. Instead, look for a therapist certified by the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners (www.hypnotistexaminers.org) or the National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists (www.natboard.com) and ask about their experience in helping women trying to conceive.

Homeopathy

What it is:

Like other alternative therapies, homeopathy is about treating the whole person. “Most homeopaths view fertility as one expression of overall health,” says Amy Rothenberg, N.D., a licensed naturopathic physician in Enfield, Connecticut, and an instructor at the New England School of Homeopathy in Amherst, Massachusetts. “So whenever we’re treating a woman complaining of infertility, we’re going to contextualize that issue in terms of her overall health–physical, mental, emotional. Ten women with infertility might get 10 different remedies based on how they experience it.” But beyond its holistic viewpoint, this 200-year-old system is far from simple to explain, in part because it’s not clear exactly how it works. In short, homeopathy is based on the “law of similars,” which says that something that causes a symptom could, when taken in extremely low doses, cure that same symptom.

When you first visit a homeopath, you can expect the practitioner to spend a lot of time asking about your lifestyle, your history, your personality, and your preferences for just about everything. Then, depending upon your responses, you’ll be given what’s called a constitutional remedy, which is a single homeopathic remedy that’s been determined to work best. Out of thousands of possible homeopathic remedies, some 90 or so are used to treat infertility.

Common constitutional remedies for balancing a body struggling with infertility include Sepia (for a woman who’s feeling worn out, tends to be irritable and have PMS, and who has cold hands and feet) and Natrum Muriaticum (for a woman who tends to be more introverted, feels better when she exercises, craves salty foods and doesn’t express her anger). Another commonly used remedy, Pulsatilla, is most effective for a person who is warm, weepy, likes fresh air, and tends to be a little overweight.

Does it Work to Boost Fertility?

Some evidence indicates that homeopathic remedies are more effective than placebos, and the remedies are nontoxic. But no research has looked at treating infertility in particular. As with other complementary modalities, you’ll need to give a homeopathic remedy time. “Usually in six months or so you’d expect to see changes–meaning changes in symptoms, not necessarily conception,” says Tim Fior, M.D., a co-founder of the Center for Integral Health in Lombard, Illinois. “You’re helping the body to heal itself. Some people might be close to balance, so it could take just a month or two.”

How to Find a Good Practitioner:

Homeopaths typically don’t specialize in infertility, though all practitioners should be able to diagnose and prescribe an appropriate remedy. Fior recommends choosing someone with general experience in homeopathy for at least five years, who has been treating infertile women during that time. More M.D.s are now using homeopathy, too. Search the National Center for Homeopathy’s online directory (www.homeopathic.org) or the American Institute of Homeopathy’s website (www.homeopathyusa.org) to find a homeopath in your area. Homeopathic remedies are approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

A version of this article originally appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of Conceive Magazine.