Jade Clinic Of Fertility Acupuncture specializes in women’s physical, mental and reproductive health through the therapeutic use of acupuncture and herbal medicine. Dr. Jane Liu, a trained gynecologist from China, provides fertility acupuncture treatment tailored to each women’s needs, so you can receive the treatment that you need to conceive.
IVF (in vitro fertilization) acupuncture and other infertility acupuncture services help to increase the chances of conception and make infertility treatments more successful. If you are struggling with successful conception or miscarriage, and IVF or other fertility treatments have not worked for you, acupuncture treatments may be the solution you are looking for.
Jade Clinic Of Fertility Acupuncture has helped hundreds of women successfully conceive and give birth, even after other treatments had failed them. Acupuncture treatments are tailored to suit the difficulties each women faces, including low ovarian reserve, recurrent pregnancy loss, endometriosis, an obstruction in the fallopian tubes and other issues. Your fertility acupuncturist will learn about you, your lifestyle, your health goals, your health history and your reproductive history or issues, and tailor a therapeutic approach with acupuncture that best suits you. The areas of the body where acupuncture is administered and the other herbal remedies included with the treatment all change what area of the body is affected and what disorders may be resolved. By promoting healthy circulation, creating hormonal balance and lowering stress, acupuncture and herbal remedies are a powerful tool in promoting healthy, successful conception.
Make an appointment today with Jade Clinic Of Fertility Acupuncture to increase your chances of successful conception. To learn more about IVF acupuncture and fertility acupuncture treatments, call Acupuncture for Women at 214-893-4321.
FERTILITY ISSUES
Infertility and Miscarriage
Aging Eggs
Low Ovarian Reserve
Recurrent Pregnancy Loss
Endometriosis
IVF/IUI Support and Miscarriage Prevention
Fallopian Tubes Blockage
Male Factor Infertility
Stress and Infertility
REPRODUCTION ENDOCRINOLOGY DYSFUNCTION
PCOS
Menstrual Cramps
Uterine Fibroids
Adenomyoma
FERTILITY ISSUES
Infertility and Miscarriage: The uterus is the home of an embryo. Its environment determines the fetus’s health and development. The lining of the uterus, known as the endometrium, is shed every month. Uterus dysfunction or structural abnormalities will cause different reproductive problems. For example, a lining that is too thin or lacking receptors might create a poor environment which affects how successfully the embryo implants in the uterus, which in turn may lead to miscarriage and excessive bleeding.
According to Chinese medicine, these patients’ symptoms suggest that their problems might be caused by blood and Qi stagnation, phlegm and blood accumulation, Qi and blood deficient and kidney deficiency, etc. Depending on the symptoms and the individual patient, the treatments we provide vary from using acupuncture or herbs or both to rebalance the body.
As many people know, acupuncture not only increases blood circulation but also help decrease the stress and anxiety (sometimes even panic attacks), which balances the nervous-endocrine system. This in turn helps create a healthier uterus. How so? Chinese herbal medicine may help rebuild damaged estrogen and progesterone receptors in the uterine lining to thicken the lining. Herbs may also heal the uterus and its surrounding environment to prevent fibroids from growing and absorbing nutrients.
We have successfully treated many patients with multiple fibroids or large fibroids who eventually became pregnant naturally. We have also treated many patients with very thin lining (4 to 5 mm) who failed to conceive with western medicine but who conceived either naturally or with IUI and IVF after lining quality had changed with the help of Chinese medicine. I firmly believed that Chinese medicine uses different ways to understand the nuances of the human body that modern science does not explore. These alternative methods often benefit patients who were not helped by modern medicine.
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Aging Eggs: Eggs begin developing in a woman’s ovaries even when she’s in her own mother’s womb. As women age, eggs become less healthy and of poorer quality–as a result, women have a diminished ability to conceive as they grow older. A 37 year old woman will have eggs that age quickly: they will either grow very slowly or have abnormal genes, which make conceiving much more difficult. From my experience, I have learned that acupuncture and Chinese medicine can change the quality of aging eggs by changing the environment of the pelvis and the rest of the body. We have had over 50 patients who were diagnosed with aging eggs in the IVF cycle. However, after three to eight months of our treatment, they produced perfect embryos and some of them became pregnant. Some of them were also able to save these eggs to freeze. We also have had hundreds of patients with aging eggs who eventually conceived naturally or through IUI. I will discuss some of them in my blog later.
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Low Ovarian Reserve: Low ovarian reserve can happen in any age group of woman, whether they are in their twenties or in their forties. Prenatal nutrition and environment of womb can greatly affect the quality of the ovaries or the quantity of eggs. For example, drinking and smoking are both very bad habits during pregnancy. Postnatal lifestyles also impact egg apoptosis speed. Malnourishment, substance abuse, or other characteristics of bad lifestyles can accelerate apoptosis of a person’s eggs, leading to faster aging of one’s eggs. We have seen numerous cases of patients with low ovarian reserve, most of whom had had high stress levels and unhealthy lifestyles or some autoimmune disorder.
However, in some cases, low ovarian reserve can be reversed with Chinese medicine, especially for women who are under 35 years of age. Many of these women suffer from “yin deficiency” with heat or phlegm. This is a pattern that affects the entire body, not just reproductive organs. Thus, acupuncture and Chinese medicine may target the ovaries, the pelvis or the body as a whole to slow down egg apoptosis speed or to balance the immune system to make the ovaries healthy again. The ovaries will then be able to create and/or increase antral follicle numbers. The most challenging case in our clinic was a 42 year old patient who had over 80 UI/L FSH, who did not have a period for over six months–and yet got pregnant naturally after acupuncture and herbal treatment.
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Recurrent Pregnancy Loss:
Researchers have discovered that acupuncture can boost blood flow to women’s reproductive organs, providing them with better nourishment.
Acupuncture appears to improve the quality of the lining of the uterus, the place where the embryo is embedded after conception, which suggests that acupuncture can improve implantation and prevent some of the risks of miscarriage.
Reproductive endocrinologists have recognized that immunologic factors play a key role in habitual miscarriages. One study has shown that the process of conception and pregnancy involves a suppression of the T-helper immune response so that the woman can carry the fetus to term. A 2001 study at Fudan University in Shanghai found that herbal medicine could inhibit specific immune injury, reprogram the immune system to not react to self-issue, allow the normal suppression involved in implantation to occur, and therefore to protect women who carry children to term. Our clinic has had numerous women with recurrent miscarriages who, after three to six months treatment, conceived naturally and carried a healthy baby to full term.
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Endometriosis:
In this condition, endometrial cells from the lining of the uterus migrate to locations where they are not normally found – outside the uterus on the ovaries, bladder, and gastrointestinal tract. It is estimated that 10 to 20 percent of all women in the United States have endometriosis. The probability of contracting the condition increases until age forty-four and then declines.
Studies on the immune systems of women with symptomatic endometriosis show that they often have antibodies against their own tissue, called autoantibodies. This means that at some level, the mind of their pelvis is rejecting aspects of itself. “Endometriosis has been clearly associated with decreased egg fertilization, decreased egg fertilization, decreased success rates for in vitro fertilization (IVF),” says Jane Liu.
Acupuncture for Women treats endometriosis with a range of herbs. Liu explains, “Our goal is to increase circulation in the pelvic area and regulate the immune system, thereby promoting drainage, discouraging adhesions, and facilitating removal of inflammatory substances. In addition, hormonal balance is reestablished, decreasing .” The herbs chosen for treatment are designed to balance the immune system and hormone; control and absorb the lesions.
“For prevention, I recommend that a woman reduce her activities as much as possible for the full days of her period each month, though this might be an unpopular suggestion to most busy women today,” explains Jane Liu. ” but it is worth it to do it “.
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Low Ovarian Reserve:
In a study of 160 women getting IVF, researchers from the Christian Lauritzen Institute in Germany used acupuncture before and after the embryo transfers in half the patients and found it increased the number of successful implantations. In the IVF-only group, 21 of the 80 patients (26.3 percent) became pregnant; in the IVF-plus-acupuncture group, 34 of 80 (42.5 percent) became pregnant. The researchers said acupuncture might reduce the uterine contractions that typically occur with embryo transfer and may inhibit implantation. We have help hundreds patient got pregnant along with acupuncture treatment. A topical case was a 42 years old woman who failed two cycles IVF, came to do acupuncture along with third cycle of IVF, successfully conceived with a twin.
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Fallopian Tubes Obstruction:
Fallopian tubes obstruction is caused by different kinds of disease : prior pelvic infections (chlamydia or gonorrhea), pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), pelvic adhesions (scar tissue), prior pelvic surgery and endometriosis, or any kind of abdominal and pelvic surgery. Blockage can occur in several locations. Often, the ends of the tubes are obstructed, while the openings into the uterus are still open. IVF treatment is the best choice for these patient.
In many cases of fallopian tube obstruction, the tube is filled with fluid which is called a hydrosalpinx. The liquid in the tube with dead cells and toxic product can drain back to the uterus cavity. This may damage the embryo and risk the success of implantation, which decreases the IVF success rates. Because of this, once a woman is diagnosed with hydrosalpinx, it is strongly recommended that she remove the tubes as studies show that the removal of tubes significantly increases IVF pregnancy rates. But this method often difficult to be accepted by the patient. In addition, it is not helpful to those who cannot use hormones, like cancer patients or for patients who for religious, health, or other reasons is not allowed to remove reproductive organs. For these patients, 3 to six months of treatment will absorb the liquid in the tubes, which will allow for a successful pregnancy.
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Male Factor Infertility:
Men suffer from infertility just as frequently as women. According to statistics from the National Infertility Association, 35% to 40% of infertility problems among couples are actually caused by the male. Many studies on male infertility have been conducted and the evidence suggests that acupuncture can have an effect on sperm production and quality, without causing any changes in behavior and sexual desire. A recent trial of 28 men who were diagnosed with idiopathic infertility received acupuncture twice a week over a period of five weeks was published in Fertility and Sterility. It has shown acupuncture can significantly increase the number of normal sperm and reduce structural defects.
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Stress and Infertility:
Stress and the brain play an important role in fertility; stress can prevent a woman from ovulating entirely and prevent men from creating sperm, while a lack of stress often promotes fertility. This trend explains why women under extreme stress often stop menstruating, why men under stress produce abnormal sperm, and why couples often conceive while on a cruise or other relaxing holidays. Acupuncture is proven to reduce stress and relax the body. Different study findings suggest that simply using acupuncture can be just as effective for relieving depression symptoms as psychotherapy and drugs typically used in conventional therapies. Perhaps this is why acupuncture can help ART patients go through their procedure smoothly.
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REPRODUCTION ENDOCRINOLOGY DYSFUNCTION
Abnormal male and female hormone levels affect up to 90 percent of women with irregular menstrual cycles and infertility. Clinical observations in Shanghai, China of patients whose ovaries were not producing eggs showed that, at a highly effective rate, after receiving a series of acupuncture treatments their ovaries began producing eggs. These experimental results suggest that acupuncture may regulate the functions of our hormonal systems, which means that acupuncture could influence some gene expression in the brain, normalizing secretion of some hormones, such as GnRH, LH and E2.
Many Chinese herbs formula affect many different parts of the reproductive cycle by stimulating the bodies’ own natural processes to work better. For instance, they trigger the hypothalamus, the pituitary glands and ovaries to release hormones that stimulate the timely production of FSH and LH, two necessary hormones in preparing for ovulation.
Experience has shown that if the hormone system is in perfect working order and a woman has clockwork menstrual cycles, a healthy egg can be released on time. It then has a good chance of becoming fertilized, implanting, and making it through embryologic development to become a child.
PCOS: Polycystic ovarian symptoms and Amenorrhea are multiple causes of hormone disorder. Even in western medicine, it is still a challenge. Because Chinese medicine targets multiple parts of the body, including the ovaries, it is an effective treatment. After near 30 years of practice, I have successfully treated numerous of PCOS patients, and I have recognized that there are some pattern within this disorder. There are some symptoms that can be used to guide us to prescribe the right treatment. According to these patterns, we give out Chinese medicine and acupuncture in order to get unexpected results. We also found out that younger patients are more easy to treat in these conditions and that diet originally plays an important role in these cases. We strongly recommend these groups of patients seek help earlier and eat healthy foods everyday.
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Menstrual Cramps: As many as 30 to 50 percent of all women suffer from pain during their menstrual period. Primary dysmenorrhea, or menstrual pain, is caused by a constriction and tightening of the uterine muscle. Blood circulation and oxygenation of the uterine muscle is diminished, and waste products of metabolism, such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid, build up and cause discomfort.
According to Chinese medicine, menstrual cramps are usually due to Qi stagnation in the lower abdomen or blood stasis or a combination of both. Treatment can involve the use of both acupuncture and herbs according to the individual patient’s needs.
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Uterine Fibroids: A fibroid is a non-cancerous tumor that arises from uterine muscle and connective tissue. Almost all cases are benign. Since fibroids develop following the onset of menstruation, enlarge during pregnancy, and decrease after menopause, fibroids are thought to be estrogen dependent. One in five women in the United States has at least some evidence of fibroids, according to a National Institutes of Health report.
Fibroids are usually firm, spherical lumps of varying sizes that often occur in groups. They can grow near the outer surface of the uterus, where they are easily detected during a pelvic examination. But they can also be found near the inner lining of the uterus, which might only be detected by an ultrasound. Birth control pills, with high levels of estrogen, and estrogen-replacement medication for menopause symptoms can also accelerate tumor growth. Fibroids normally shrink in size after menopause.
From a “whole-body” view, fibroids are an indication that something is not flowing or is stagnate, but fibroids can also have an element of dampness and phlegm involvement.
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Adenomyoma: Adenomyoma is similar to endometriosis. But in this case, the endometrial cell from the lining of uterus migrates to the uterine myometrium. Enlarged uterus, painful menstruation and long term – excessive bleeding are characteristics and symptoms of Adenomyoma. Its mechanism and treatments are similar to fibroids and endometriosis according to Chinese medicine.
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