In recent years, researchers abroad have become increasingly interested in traditional Chinese medicine, which has been handed down for thousands of years, and have been studying many authentic Chinese medical methods, including acupuncture, mechanisms for healing and relieving illnesses, with an increasing number of relevant scientific findings. A few days ago, the British newspaper The Guardian reported another piece of news that is sure to make TCM skeptics feel uncomfortable: the use of TCM combined with in vitro fertilization to treat infertility has yielded promising results.
I. Acupuncture treatment allows Mary’s left ovary to start ovulating
Mary Stewart had been desperate to have a happy family like everyone else, but unfortunately, although she had conceived several times, each pregnancy was ectopic and her left fallopian tube had been removed, leaving her to rely on her right ovary to ovulate.
Mary said, “Most women ovulate alternately from their left and right ovaries each month, but my left ovary is lazy and never ovulates.” Mary, 31, a real estate developer, was going to try in vitro fertilization, but it was the next best thing and would not have chosen this method of pregnancy as a last resort. Inspired by an article she had read on “Acupuncture and Infertility,” Mary began browsing the Internet to find a doctor willing to combine traditional Chinese medicine to treat infertility.
Two years ago, she finally found Dr. Joe George. Joe runs the Life Medical Clinic in London, which combines acupuncture and Chinese medicine to treat gynecological disorders and infertility. I received the acupuncture treatment with optimism and I wasn’t afraid of needles,” says Mary. One of the first things Joe did was to use electro-acupuncture to stimulate my left ovary with a weak electrical current conducted by needles. This may sound a little scary, but you actually only feel a buzzing or clanking sound. Surprisingly, a few months later my left ovary started ovulating. The hospital was tracking my follicles at the time, and they immediately broke the news to me.”
Second, the fetus was found to be malpositioned, and Mary again turned to acupuncture treatment
However, Mary finally decided to undergo in vitro fertilization. “Follicle tracking was very slow and I felt very distressed and desperate. The first failed IVF attempt hit me hard. I was resting and recuperating before undergoing the next round of IVF, when I didn’t expect I would get pregnant naturally.” Last April, Mary gave birth to her son, Sam, without incident. Mary had been going to Joe’s weekly for acupuncture before she became pregnant and was taking the herbal medicine Joe had specially prepared for her on a regular basis.
During her pregnancy, Mary continued to go to Joe’s clinic for acupuncture treatments. At the 36th week, the hospital found out that the fetus was not in the right position, it was breech! The doctor recommended a cesarean section. But Mary said, “I was adamantly opposed to a C-section. So Jo suggested ayurveda, a type of acupuncture therapy, which sounds crazy. When she told me this suggestion, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. I thought to myself, “That’s never going to work.”
The mugwort used is the herb dried and shrunken into rolls. Mary’s husband, Jeremy, gently grilled the wormwood near her little toe every night for 15 minutes at a time. “According to Joe, the fetus would become agitated and move around in her belly as a result. Sure enough, just as I was about to request a C-section, the fetus flipped and went into labor!”
Three, Joe George once made a special trip to China for acupuncture training
Mary is now pregnant with her second child, this time without any help, and is due in August of this year. She is convinced that it was Joe’s treatments that improved her fertility. “At first I was half-hearted, but when I saw the results of the follicle tracing, I instantly sat up and started paying attention to the treatment. At the same time, I had no idea that Artemisia could have such unexpected effects.”
A picture of Mary, Jeremy and Sam on the table in Joe George’s consulting room. Jo, 35, trained in aromatherapy, massage and reflexology before earning a degree in acupuncture therapy from the University of Westminster and conducting research in Chinese herbal medicine. In addition, she has received specialized training at hospitals in China. Jo uses six to eight sterilized, disposable silver needles for each treatment, which she performs every hour. Jo has the patient lie on the bed and then starts the acupuncture.
It’s a good feeling. Usually, the patient does not have to undress, just expose the acupuncture site. Depending on the disease, needles can be placed on the wrist or on the abdomen. Afterwards, Jo allows the patient to relax or sleep quietly, at which point she begins to make the herbs. The herbs may include dried herbs, mint or angelica. She hands the patient the crushed herbs so that instead of having to cook the bark or roots for hours, the patient can simply brew the ground herbs with boiling water.
Jo admits that the research on how acupuncture works is not yet deep. But she adds, “The feedback I get from my patients and the changes in their symptoms indicate that acupuncture does have a positive effect. I feel strongly that women, and certainly men, should be aware of and choose methods that help with disease treatment.”
Fourth, Chinese and Western doctors have different views on acupuncture therapy
Jo’s trip to China was very rewarding and she deeply appreciated that Eastern and Western medicine can actually complement each other’s strengths. Jo says that the East and West have different views on acupuncture therapy. “Western medicine acknowledges that sticking needles into different parts of the body does stimulate other parts of the body. But acupuncture does nothing more than cause muscles to relax. But from a Chinese medicine perspective, acupuncture points are on meridians connected to the internal organs, and sticking needles into certain defined areas can cause changes in the body, for example, stimulating blood circulation toward the uterus. We still don’t quite understand how acupuncture works to cure diseases.”
Joe sees 20 to 30 patients a week, and not all of these people come to see for infertility. Gynecological disorders are one of the main focuses of TCM treatment. She says, “Not all people who come here to see a doctor are here to address a pregnancy problem. Some may come to see for other conditions, such as fibroids, endometriosis and excessive menstruation.”
Another of Jo’s patients is Simone, a 36-year-old designer. Nine months ago, Simone gave birth to a pair of twins. She already had a 5-year-old daughter at the time. She says, “For 18 months we had been hoping to get pregnant, but because it was our second pregnancy, we didn’t think it would be too much of a problem.” However, the doctor’s initial diagnosis revealed the problem. Simone then decided to undergo a combination of Chinese medicine and in vitro fertilization.
Simone says, “My sister had used Chinese medicine, so it was easy for me to accept it. Joe was very supportive of everything I was doing at the time.” Simone was able to conceive within the first session of IVF treatment. She says, “I had been taking hormones and herbs and receiving acupuncture treatments, but Jo played an extremely important role in my pregnancy. I felt so much more relaxed with her there. I grew to love acupuncture treatments and continued with them throughout my pregnancy. Jo really had a positive impact on my successful pregnancy and I am ready to visit her again.”
V. Acupuncture can effectively treat infertility
Several studies have demonstrated that using a combination of acupuncture and in vitro fertilization to treat infertility does have positive results. At a recent meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, a study was presented by the Southern Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine and Fertility.
It reported that half of the 114 women who underwent in vitro fertilization treatment also received acupuncture therapy. More than half of the women who combined acupuncture and IVF treatments eventually became pregnant, compared to 36 percent of women who did not receive acupuncture treatments. The miscarriage rate for women who received acupuncture was only 8%, compared to 20% for women who did not receive acupuncture.
In addition, a 2002 German study showed that women who received acupuncture treatments had a 42% success rate when undergoing in vitro fertilization, compared to 26% for women who did not receive such treatments.
Sixth, there are also experts who disagree about the efficacy of acupuncture
Dr. Andrew Moore, a former biochemist with the British National Health Service and now editor of Bandolier, an online journal designed to raise awareness of health care, said, “We can’t draw final conclusions from just a small study. There’s not a great deal of factual evidence on the question of exactly what kind of healing effect acupuncture will have.”
If acupuncture did help with pregnancy, Dr. Moore said, the therapy would be widely used. He said, “The use of traditional methods of treating infertility is not very effective, and the probability of pregnancy is not high. If acupuncture could increase the probability of conception by 5 or 10 percent, it would soon be adopted on a large scale. Many clinical medical specialists do have a positive impact on their patients, and these specialists also study the patient’s lifestyle, a treatment that should only be available in conventional medicine, but is not always used.
As a biochemist, I have worked to increase the probability of pregnancy in infertile couples. I can understand their personal feelings. But many people spend a lot of money on treatments that are not based on any scientific evidence.”