Transcript: Acupuncture For Fertility

Zen Living

Episode “Acupuncture
for Fertility”

Nicole
Tomlinson: For millions of Americans having a baby and starting a family is as
natural as life itself. However, when if hit roadblocks and found themselves
unable to conceive, many turn to IBF and many other not so natural solutions.
What if there was a more natural way to help Mother Nature along? We are here
today with Kirsten Karchmer who is going to guide us through the process of
acupuncture for fertility.

This is Kirsten,
and she is going to tell us how acupuncture can assist in the treatment of
infertility. Hi Kirsten.

Kirsten
Karchmer: Hi, how are you?

Nicole
Tomlinson: Very good. Now in regards to fertility, who is a prime candidate to
undergo treatment for infertility?

Kirsten
Karchmer: That is a good question. We divide it into three categories. In our
practice we specialize in infertility, and ovulation disorders, and miscarriage
prevention. There are very few patients who are not a good candidate for infertility
treatments in general. A lot of times we find that patients who have the least
success rates are patients who have very large uterine fibroids. Or who have
some kind of blockage of the fallopian tunes. Those things need to be
surgically removed. Acupuncture is not going to remove those tings.

Nicole
Tomlinson: Right. Once we decide ok, I am a good candidate. How do we start?

Kirsten
Karchmer: Well what happens is first you come for a consultation with a
licensed acupuncturist. In that consultation the acupuncturist should take
about an hour or hour and a half first of all to explain what he or she does
and answer all your questions, and then do a comprehensive health history.

When we are
treating infertility our goal is to understand why do you have what you have.
Why does this person have infertility who is thirty four years old versus this
person who doesn’t have infertility who is the same age and has similar health.

Nicole
Tomlinson: I see.

Kirsten
Karchmer: Many problems can sauce infertility; it can be the blood not moving
in the uterus. There can be an inability to make enough blood, so the uterine
lining doesn’t build up thick enough for implantation to occur. So there are
many, many reasons why somebody may have a hard time either getting pregnant,
or ovulating, or staying pregnant. And we are trying to decide that on the
first appointment.

Alyssa: My
husbands and I tried on our own for close to six months and had no success then
went to a doctor and I had problems with all sorts of hormonal imbalances and
things so I started taking Clomid and doing iui’s which are intra-uterine
inseminations for several months and none of that worked. I was found to have mild
to moderate endometriosis so I had a lot of that cleared out with the surgery
and that could have been a factor that was keeping us from getting pregnant.

Marla: Over
a year’s time I wasn’t menstruating regularly, they didn’t believe I was
ovulation. I didn’t believe I was ovulation. For a year or a few months they
prescribed a drug called Clomid, and still taking ovulation productive kits it
wasn’t coming out positive. So again I wasn’t believing I was ovulating, and
the medicine was having a negative impact. So I decided I wasn’t going to do
any kind of medication. If I couldn’t get pregnant naturally in some way then
maybe that wasn’t the path for us.

Nicole
Tomlinson: So once we have the consultation and all of those things are worked
out. Then what do we do? Do we go in on the table and start getting the pins?

Kirsten
Karchmer: On the second appointment, that’s when we start doing acupuncture.

Nicole
Tomlinson: Is it instantaneous? Like I can go home and get pregnant?

Kirsten
Karchmer: Actually it takes quite a bit of time. What we are trying to do is
regulate your menstrual cycle. So the goal of the treatment for infertility is
not to get someone pregnant. Because just getting pregnant doesn’t finish the
job. What our goal is to help people to first get as healthy as possible, to
get there body functioning at the highest capacity possible. After there body
is functioning at full capacity we regulate the menstrual cycle. When somebody
is really healthy and there menstrual cycle is regular the side effects should
be they can get pregnant easily, and stay pregnant.

Nicole
Tomlinson: Ah, I see.

Kirsten
Karchmer: The end goal is a happy healthy baby.

Nicole
Tomlinson: So what we are really doing is not focusing on getting pregnant. We
are focusing on getting healthy.

Kirsten
Karchmer: Exactly.

Marla: I had
a friend who told me several years back that she had tried for at least two
years to get pregnant and nothing had worked in terms of medication. I think
she went and tried IVF. One of the things she did was acupuncture. So that kind
of just stuck in my mind I remembered it and so then I looked around here. And
within two moths of regular treatments twice a week, with the herbs the had
prescribed as well, my cycle started regulating. And I started ovulating, which
was a big deal for us. And then within a two month period of time I got
pregnant.

Alyssa: I started
coming about three to four months before we did our second in vitro twice a week.
And it relaxed me so much and it sort of made me calmer about the whole thing
as well as it was a very stressful medical procedure to go through. I just sort
I had a very different outlook at it and I felt that the doctor s and medicine
would do their part and the acupuncture helped me stay very calm and relaxed on
my part. Which I would joke to think was a really big help in having it all
work and keeping me in good health for having a pregnancy and have a baby. And
it worked and I now have a eight month old baby.

Nicole
Tomlinson: So we are looking at a lot of unusual things in here. Do any of
these herbs assist in the treatment of infertility?

Kirsten
Karchmer: In our clinic we use acupuncture and herbal medicine and nutritional
consulting and lifestyle consulting. The goal of herbal medicine in Chinese medicine
is to try to make a formula for patients that meets them exactly where they are
currently today in there menstrual cycle. During each week in the menstrual
cycle, something different is occurring.

Nicole
Tomlinson: So take us two someone who is maybe at day 14 in their cycle who is
coming in to seek treatment for infertility. What herbs would you use?

Kirsten
Karchmer: This is a problem because when somebody is coming in for ovulation
problems when they say oh I am having ovulation sores, I have polycystic
ovarian disease or I am not ovulating. Or I am ovulating to early or too late.
The cause of each one of those individual problems are different.

Nicole
Tomlinson: Once the whole process has gone through, we have gotten the acupuncture
for awhile, how long do you say it takes to conceive?

Kirsten
Karchmer:  Once the patients who come to
us are feeling very healthy and their health has been restored and their
menstrual cycle is regulated and their basal body temperature falls within the
parameters we are looking for people are getting very close to pregnancy.

Nicole
Tomlinson:  Do you recommend that they
not try while you’re trying to remedy the problem. While you’re trying to
really get our menstrual cycle back on track?

Kirsten
Karchmer: We do recommend that they wait three moths before they try to
conceive. Probably acupuncture can get a persons body strong enough to conceive
within five or sic or seven weeks, but it’s really just putting a band aid.
Like getting things shored up as best as possible but it’s not strong enough to
necessarily sustain the pregnancy and carry the baby term. So we really want
people to deliver a healthy baby.

Marla: I
cant say for sure, I mean I cant say that is exactly the variable that caused
the pregnancy, but I did see quite a bit of impact that it did have on my body
as compared to any kind of medicine I have been taking and any kind of other
doctors appointments that I had and so acupuncture is the only thing that I saw
that started to regulate my cycle. And the I was also very hopeful that this is
hopeful I can feel positive things in my body. I was having less aches and
pains I was sleeping better at night. So I saw other things in addition to just
the menstrual cycle changing.

Nicole
Tomlinson: When Mother Nature needs just a pinch to get started, acupuncture
might be the solution. Its not high science, just common sense. With all we do
today to disrupt the flow of nature, it takes old world know how to get us back
to basics. I am Nicole Tomlinson, and form all of us at Zen living thank you so
much for watching and we will catch you next time. Peace.