Get your garden ready for your little seed! You may have heard that you need to prepare the soil before planting, and the same goes for getting your body ready for pregnancy. The uterine lining (endometrium) is where your future baby will attach, get nutrition, and grow. Furthermore, a healthy uterine lining can help reduce the risk of early miscarriage.

So, what’s the key to fertile soil for the baby? The ideal endometrial lining before the implantation should be about 8mm in thick and have a good blood circulation. Ideally, it will have a three-layer pattern, which it can be seen on the ultrasound. Women with better blood circulation in the endometrium have more live births with IVF.

Developing embryo relies on endometrial lining for nutrients until at least the tenth week of pregnancy. Uterine linings also regulates placental growth and differentiation.

However, treatments that optimise your endometrium are limited, and we don’t yet know of any lifestyle interventions that are proven to help. That’s where acupuncture comes in.

Why you should try acupuncture

Previous small trials and case reports showed that acupuncture can successfully address a too-thin lining. Acupuncture has a unique ability to improve uterine blood circulation making it a first-line treatment for a thin endometrium.

A recent study (systematic review and meta-analysis) from a team of researchers in Guangzhou explored acupuncture’s effect and safety in improving endometrial thickness and pattern, pregnancy rate as well as embryo transfer rate.

Researchers crunched the data from 13 trials, with a total of 3041 participating women. Most of the patients in selected studies received acupuncture for about three months leading to the embryo transfer.

The results showed that acupuncture improved the quality of the endometrial lining. In particular, more women developed the trilinear (three layer) endometrial pattern. Furthermore, endometrial blood circulation and lining thickness improved significantly when acupuncture was added as an adjunctive treatment to medications. Consequently, there were more pregnancies and more embryo transfers among women who received acupuncture.

Was acupuncture safe? Yes, it was. Once again there were no unwanted side effects in the acupuncture group.

These findings are clinically important as there are no other safe treatments for women with compromised endometrium. Furthermore, there are no other preconception care therapies that could optimise endometrial lining to improve fertility leading to IVF or natural conception.

To sum it up – it’s worth including acupuncture to improve your endometrial receptivity – the soil for the baby to attach and grow.

At our clinic, we base our treatments on proven protocols and tailor them to your specific diagnosis and TCM diagnosis. If you’re interested in taking advantage of this therapy, get in touch now to have your questions answered or to schedule a consultation. Let’s get your garden ready for your little seed!