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I have been studying and practicing fertility treatment since 1985. Over the past 31 years, I’ve witnessed first-hand the enormously improved success we have been able to achieve with advancements in in-vitro fertilization (“IVF”). Every day now, people we previously thought could never be helped to conceive are having babies as a result of today’s state-of-the-art IVF technology. However, successful as we have been, there are those who remain unhelped and still in need despite modern technology and medicine. For those, I went back to school to study Traditional Chinese Medicine (“TCM”) and acupuncture.
TCM has been successfully used for nearly all health problems since before recorded history. In fact, approximately 2400 years ago the ancient Chinese medical text, Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Internal Medicine, was written dealing with the relationships among the internal organs and with the concepts of yin and yang as applied to medicine. In TCM, the yin and yang principle proposes that the bodily organs are interdependent and support each other in harmony. Disease is defined as a loss of this state of balance within and among the organs. Treatment with TCM is based on the restoration of the body’s natural harmony and rebalancing of all the organs.
Applying TCM to conventional Western medical diagnosis mixes different worlds without a common language. The science of TCM is based on the flow of Qi (the body’s life energy) that connect the organs through channels and runs throughout the body. Deficiencies and stagnations of this Qi arising from the different organs result in patterns of symptomatology– including the inability to conceive. Treatment is individualized based on the unique patterns that are evident in each patient. These symptoms and patterns are elucidated upon taking the patient’s history and performing a physical examination.
Integrating TCM with state-of-the-art Western medicine involves focusing on these patterns and connections that help us filter each patient’s story and emerge with a clear map of how to use all the tools of medicine… including the most effective TCM and high-tech Western medicine.
Though the West was first introduced to acupuncture and TCM when President Nixon visited China, it was not until 2002 that the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (“ASRM”) took notice when a published article in Fertility and Sterility showed that pre- and post- transfer acupuncture increased pregnancy rates.
The Manheimer review published in Human Reproduction in June 2013 showed statistically improved success when acupuncture was used as adjunctive therapy in IVF programs that had lower pregnancy rates. Recently, Dr. Shahar Lev-Ari from Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine reported when combining IUI with TCM treatments, 65.5% of a test group of 29 women between ages 30 and 45 (average 39.4) were able to conceive, compared with 39.4% of the control group of 94 women between ages 28 and 46 (average 37.1) who received no herbal or acupuncture therapy. The TCM treatment included weekly acupuncture and Chinese herbs.
At ASRM 2015, Dr. Paul Magarelli presented a study he performed from his program in Colorado demonstrating significantly higher pregnancy rates when acupuncture was initiated at least 6 weeks prior to embryo transfer and included pre- and post- transfer treatments.
How does acupuncture help fertility? From a Western perspective, acupuncture’s successful treatment of stress is effective to improve fertility mostly by improving hormonal function.
There is evidence that acupuncture also increases blood flow to the reproductive organs and helps balance the endocrine system.
If we are to assume that combining TCM with modern reproductive medicine optimizes a patient’s success, then how can we best help our patients? At Long Island IVF we work with some of the most qualified fertility acupuncturists on Long Island and, in addition, offer TCM and acupuncture on-site in the Melville office including pre- and post- transfer.
As a certified acupuncturist and reproductive endocrinologist with over 30 years of experience in IVF, I feel I am uniquely qualified to offer our patients the most effective fertility treatment that includes the best that Western medicine has to offer as well as TCM and acupuncture.
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Do you think adding acupuncture to your treatment plan could be beneficial?
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Long Island IVF-WINNER: Best in Vitro Fertility Practice 2015 AND 2016
It is with humble yet excited hearts that we announce that Long Island IVF was voted the Best In Vitro Fertility Practice in the Best Of Long Island 2015 and 2016 contest…two years in a row!
The doctors, nurses, embryologists, and the rest of the Long Island IVF staff are so proud of this honor and so thankful to every one of you who took the time to vote. From the moms juggling LIIVF babies… to the dads coaching LIIVF teens…to the parents sending LIIVF adults off to college or down the aisles… to the LIIVF patients still on their journeys to parenthood who are confident in the care they’re receiving…we thank you all.
We love what we’ve gotten to do every day more than 28 years…build families. If you are having trouble conceiving, please call us. Many of our nurses and staff were also our patients, so we really do understand what you’re going through. And we’d like to help. 631-752-0606.