Lil : Tell us abt your acupuncture when you go this fri.
Saralyn: Enjoy ur holiday!!
I read this article and found it useful.The link is:
"researchers think that acupuncture may help increase blood flow to the uterus and relax the muscle tissue, giving the embryos a better chance of implanting.
Acupuncture may also help male infertility. Regular treatments have been shown to improve sperm counts and motility (the strength with which the sperm swim) for men with fertility problems but not always significantly. To improve the chances of pregnancy by natural means, acupuncture treatment would need to increase a man's sperm count over the threshold needed for conception. This means a minimum of 10 to 12 million moving sperm per ejaculate, and the men in these studies didn't get up to those levels.
However, for couples considering assisted conception, acupuncture can help by improving the quality of the sperm. In a study published in 2005, researchers analysed sperm samples from men with infertility of unknown cause before and after acupuncture treatments. They found that acupuncture was associated with fewer structural defects in sperm and an increase in the number of normal sperm.
Most experts believe that we need larger and better studies, ideally random and double blind trials, using fake needles for some patients and real ones for others, in order to really know whether acupuncture is effective. In some of the studies mentioned above, the patients and healthcare providers knew that acupuncture was performed, so the studies weren't "blind" and the success of the treatment might have been due to what's known as the placebo effect. Perhaps it was the patients' belief in acupuncture, rather than the acupuncture itself, that accounted for the treatment's success.
However, in the end it doesn't matter that much whether the success of acupuncture is a placebo effect or not. The bottom line is that acupuncture is relatively safe, and if it improves fertility, even if it's only because you think it does, it may be worthwhile.
The best first step to treating any fertility problem is to contact a specialist. If you do decide to try acupuncture, look for a registered acupuncturist, some of whom are also medical doctors. The British Acupuncture Council (
www.acupuncture.org.uk) can help you find one near you.
Reviewed May 2007
"
hope every things turn out well for u
