I'm afraid of needles, must I have them?
No. I have been using electroacupuncture for more than 20 years in my regular practice for patients who don't want needles, and this works very well. Many of the responses in the body will be exactly the same as using needle acupuncture but no needles at all are used. All you will feel is a gentle buzzing or tingling sensation in the areas being treated. The basis of my fertility treatment is no needle electroacupuncture anyway to which I usually add some needle acupuncture, but you do not need to have needles as well to get the acupuncture effects.

Must I have acupuncture/electroacupuncture and mindbody medicine together?
No, it's not essential. If you want acupuncture on its own, or just mindbody medicine, or even a mixture of your own choice, that's fine with us. We will advise you though, based on the questionnaire we ask you to fill in, and talking to you, but the final decision is of course yours.
We like to do both because both treatment approaches are very helpful in boosting fertility, and they probably work in different ways. Each has worthwhile benefits the other doesn't have and also there is some evidence that, done together, they strengthen the effects of each other.
So we prefer to do both together as a full programme of roughly 6 treatments over about 3 months. If you do want both approaches then it's much more convenient for you that we can do both at the same treatment session.

How long do the effects last for?
No one has measured how long these effects might last although they do seem to last for some time. Sometimes, some of the markers for improved hormone balance - more regular or less painful periods for example - appear to be lasting. Certainly, from what we know of how acupuncture and mindbody medicine work, the responses could be very long lasting.

Can you treat men?
Yes. Some studies suggest that male factor infertility can affect 30% of couples. Some good research shows that acupuncture can improve sperm quality, quantity and survival. Mindbody medicine may be helpful as well, although we usually just concentrate on acupuncture with men.

How old is too old?
Quite simply we don't know. There is evidence that acupuncture and some of the mindbody techniques that we teach improve the quality and function of the ovaries and one technique in particular will boost DHEA. This naturally occurring hormone seems to "make eggs and ovaries younger". You can learn to improve levels of DHEA with a simple breathing method which we will teach you.

Can it help with endometriosis?
Yes. About 60% of women who have endometriosis will have difficulty conceiving. Both acupuncture and MBM can help with the pain of endometriosis, and will also improve hormone function. This improvement in function means an increase in your chances of conceiving, and we have had some success in women with endometriosis.

What about PCOS?
Swedish researchers studied women with PCOS who were not ovulating and showed that electroacupuncture repeated over several weeks stimulated ovulation in a substantial number. Further research showed that there were improvements in the ovaries and in egg quality and also in insulin resistance.

I am not ovulating, and Clomid isn't working. Can you help?
A study in the USA showed that MBM techniques produced ovulation in 80% of women with Functional Hypothalamic Amenorrhoea (failure to ovulate). Other published studies in Acupuncture show similar success rates. But what may be more important is that these two approaches probably have wider, more beneficial effects, than Clomid.