TTC with Acupuncture

Hi everyone!

I've started this thread so there is a dedicated area for those using TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and/or Chinese Acupuncture to share their stories.

After 11 months of trying, I have started seeing a chinese medicine and acupuncturist. Her main concern with treating me is to rid me of "dampness" - my acne and excess mucous (sorry if TMI!) which can impair my body and its ability to function normally.

After that, she said she really needs to work at improving the warmth in my blood - I run very, very cold.

My blood tests from dr's indicate nothing is wrong with me. DH has "super swimmers". My periods are what is considered "normal" in western medicine (2-3 days max, light, stop/start nature with clotting, not very red, and a couple of days spotting at the end). In chinese medicine, they are not considered normal at all and are a sign that my blood flow and uterine lining is not good.

That's the short of my story, ill add more tidbits as we go along

I look forward to hearing what everyone else's experiences have been like!

Not TTC with acupuncture currently ( may do this year though) I love this subject..

I have had Acupuncture recently to help my early pg nausea (am no longer pg). I also have dampness. I was told to adjust diet.

Great thread

I didn't adjust my diet really I was told to avoid bananas, dairy (except yogurt), wheat, caffeine, peanuts, alcohol, etc
I eat mostly gluten free anyway, not because I have an intolerance, but because its a preference of mine, I actually have a personal aversion to flour.. It sounds crazy.. And I hate explaining it to people cos I get the weirdest looks But I can't physically touch flour (well not easily) so its basically a phobia, I can't eat baking with it in it, I'm very picky with breads etc.. I tend to eat gluten free or very grainy breads with limited flour. And when I bake, I bake flourless with ground almonds or any alternative instead of flour........... I swear, I'm not a total freak
But I'm not gluten free totally as I have things like pearl barley, soy sauce and the occasional treat
But cutting out bananas, dairy, and peanuts would have been SO hard! I eat those things daily.. Well peanut butter I love! Bananas and banana smoothies for breakfast quite often. And at the time I was told this... I was horrendously sick with first trimester nausea and was literally LIVING on bananas, crackers and peanut butter on GF toast!
I would love to try the diet, but I've never been good at cutting out whole food groups so I'm quite aware it may not last long if I was to try!

Don't worry, I get lots of laughs from my flour phobia!! I'm used to it, and full know it's weird

Hmmm that really makes me want to get on top of my dampness before falling pregnant again, I was SO sick, I was like "I'm never getting pregnant again" (kinda like when you have a hangover..... "I'm never drinking again!!" )
But I seriously was the sickest I've ever been, I missed out on the gorgeous summer we had all over the country and missed a good friends wedding and so many other fun events, as well as 4 weeks of work! Only to lose the baby at week 19..... Life is mean right??!!

Anyway, back to full health now and TTC but dreading morning sickness!!!
P.s they should call it 'all day all night sickness'

Because I was so severely sick I could have quite bad dampness? Mind you, my diets so much better these days, but still not perfect for a diagnosed "dampy" I have milk, bananas, peanut butter daily, and occasionally have wheat other dairy and caffiene/coffee
God... Those muffins do sound amazing...
Eating to cure dampness is not something that would be easy I am going to try wean myself away from dairy as much as possible and onto almond milk or something as a step in the right direction!

I'd love to know what herbs you take Pity your acupuncturist didn't write them down for you..

Hi there, DH and I have been TTC # 1 since March 2011 and have just finished my first IVF cycle. I'm pretty keen to see what other things I can do to improve chances and am keen to try acupuncture. I google'd "acupuncture for infertility auckland" which came up with this site, which I thought had useful tips:

http://infertilityinfo.co.nz/choosing-a-good-acupuncturist/

Hi ladies... great thread!

I've been going to acupuncture for 5 weeks now. Have been going once a week (missed 4th week as had other commitments) but other than that, plan to keep going every Wednesday.

Had never temped until seeing her - had always been pretty certain of when I ov (sometimes get twinges on one side) and cycles are always pretty much spot on (27 days). One interesting thing she told me is she didn't think it was a good thing to feel cramps when you're ovulating... anyone else been told that? Anyway, she wanted me to start temping as she said that she could gather quite a bit of info about hormone levels and other things when looking at charts.

Other than that, she has put me on a 6 week detox, it's called 'Heel Detox' (Heel is a company that makes homeopathic products). Pretty simple, just add drops to 1.5ltrs of water and drink it daily. Has given me a bit of a headache over the first few days but apparently that's normal when your body is getting rid of toxins. Not taking any other herbs.

n00b, haven't been seeing her long but her name is Angelique Kingsley-Smith. She is in Sandringham. I find her really lovely. If you want to find out more about her her website is www.acupuncturehealth.co.nz

Can't wait to see how we all get on and if acupuncture is going to help

oh and charlys, i had a quick look-see at my notes, and it looks like my herbs are made up of a concoction of about 8-10 different herbs! she used shorthand notes so couldn't tell what they were.

Hi everyone!

Great thread :) We have been TTC for almost a year now, and I have been seeing an acupuncturist for 10 weeks.

I see her twice in a cycle (my cycles are around 5-6 weeks long), once before I ovulate and once after. She puts needles in differet spots depending on where I'm at in my cycle.

She hasn't said anything about herbs but she did say she thinks I have a blood definiciency and I am running cold. She suggested I take iron and CoQ10 and also to eat warm foods, use a hot water bottle, keep my feet warm etc.

She also gave me a book by Zita West 'Fertility and Conception' which has a detox in it for liver cleansing. I did it, but honestly detoxing doesn't agree with me, I ate way more bad food afterwards than I usually would. I think I'm better to try to eat a healthy diet consistently. Other than that she hasn't really talked to me much about food. She did suggest coffee and alcohol aren't great, but she said if it's stressful to cut them out completely I should think about cutting down to say, one coffee per week and really enjoying it.

My two cycles since seeing her have been my shortest yet, so I'm pretty happy with that. We actually fertlized an egg this cycle too, but unfortunately it is a chemical pregnancy (the second time this year). So that sucks. I'm seeing her on Thursday this week so it'll be interesting to see what she thinks about this happening to me again and whether she will adjust anything she's doing with me.

Anyway, sorry for the novel! Love to hear other people's experiences!

OH, and I live in Mt Maunganui and see Jackie Burkett at Pure Acupuncture. She is really lovely and knowledgeable, I would definitely recommend her.

hi nervous, it doesn't hurt, you hardly feel it. theyre usually really good at distracting you so you don't even know the needle has gone in! and like what julietta says, sometimes you get a warm, kind of burning sensation when they turn it.

awesome info julietta! i run cold and have dampness, but looks like we've got the dampness sorted after 3 weeks which is pretty good, i just have to keep up the dietary things as much as possible for that. all the things you have been suggested are really good, the other things are to try and include cinnamon and other warming spices in as much of your food as possible - chai tea is excellent. i put a bit of black pepper, chilli, or cayenne pepper in to as many dinner meals now as possible.

with the detox thing, sugar is a really hard thing to break - try replacing it with pure maple syrup if you can, or even honey. then just reducing your dairy intake (except for yoghurt) should help. pretty much like you said, if you eat healthier all the time, then that is better. Meat and green veges is pretty much a fail-safe dinner option!

That's great Chan... she really is nice and very down to earth... the more of us in here the merrier I say!