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The Issue of Acupuncture and Fertility
Acupuncture serves as one alternative to modern treatment methods for improving fertility. Couples that are having functional problems like irregularity in ovulation are more likely to benefit from acupuncture than those who experience structural problems like having a blocked sperm duct or damaged fallopian tubes.
Working Principle of Acupuncture
How acupuncture and fertility are related is still not known precisely. Most experts in acupuncture hold the view that acupuncture works by improving body functions, balancing the hormone levels in blood, and increasing blood flow to the genital organs. The result is enhancement in ovarian function for women and increased production of sperm in men.
According to the Chinese concept of treatment, throughout the human body and its surface, invisible channels of energy run. These are called meridians. If any of these channels is obstructed at any one point in the body, energies start building up in certain body regions while others do not get enough of it to function properly. These obstructions can be opened by placing needles on select spots. Medical science is of the view that using needles stimulates the nervous system to trigger the release of chemicals within the brain, spinal cord, and muscles. This sets the body on an auto-healing program.
Acupuncture and Fertility in Women
Studies appear to vote in favor of acupuncture as a complementary form of therapy in women who are having other treatments for fertility problem. One opinion on this positive relation of acupuncture and fertility in women is that acupuncture relieves the anxiety of women undergoing treatment for fertility. Also, acupuncture's success in bringing fertility is more pronounced if the woman is to undergo in vitro fertilization. In addition, the rate of miscarriages and ectopic (out of place) pregnancies has been found significantly lower for women who took acupuncture as treatment.
Acupuncture and Pregnancy
The causal relation between acupuncture and fertility has also been studied in case of the number of pregnancies that were reported in women whose cases were stamped as hopeless by medical doctors and who later caught at the acupuncture needles for final hope. However, these studies have been challenged by medical experts who showed by experiments that even without acupuncture such women could get pregnant by biofeedback i.e. changing their thought patterns to positively influence their internal systems. While the opinion of the medical community remains divided on the issue of acupuncture and fertility, doctors have no reservation in allowing their patients undergo acupuncture since it has been observed to be quite a safe procedure.
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