This client’s story highlights the importance of preparation for going into IVF, even though this was a frozen cycle, when longer preparation is not always necessary. I advised her to work with me for three months to optimise her hormonally and health more generally.
Alice who was 38 sought acupuncture because her first two cycles of IVF had failed. Her first IVF resulted in low fertilisation rate and no pregnancy. For the second round, ICSI was used to inject sperm into the egg and genetic testing was done on the resulting embryos; two were viable and one was transferred, though this sadly did not develop. Alice had suffered mild ovarian hyperstimulation and one blastocyst remained.
We managed to have weekly acupuncture for three menstrual cycles before going into the frozen transfer. This was time to make some lifestyle changes, such as reducing alcohol and changing her diet slightly in accordance with Chinese Medicine. Uterine scar tissue and cysts had been noted in previous IVF rounds and so a scan was done prior to this transfer. None were found and her uterine lining thickness was optimal. Eight sessions of acupuncture were undertaken during her medicated Frozen cycle, including two sessions on the day of frozen embryo transfer. Alice suffered high anxiety after transfer and so we scheduled a further two sessions to help calm her nerves and support blood flow to the uterus. Happily this resulted in her becoming pregnant.
Read about my Fertile Support Programme.
