Chinese Medicine involves both acupuncture and herbal treatment. Out of the two, acupuncture has become more synonymous with IVF. The non-pharmacological nature of acupuncture removes the possibility of any co-interaction with the drugs used in IVF. This enables acupuncture to be an excellent adjunct therapy to IVF in clinical practice. The close association, which has developed between acupuncture and IVF, has in turn led to the perception that acupuncture is better at treating infertility in general.
Contrary to popular perception, I am of the opinion that herbal medicine is the more effective for treating infertility. Acupuncture is a process of regulation. Its mechanism is to bring the body back into a state of balance. I ask you this: for fertility purposes, is there any point in making a woman in her 40’s balanced and representative of her age? I think not. I personally would rather treat her so that she could present better than her age suggests.
Chinese herbal medicine, like acupuncture, is an energetic medicine. But unlike acupuncture, it is not limited to the having a regulatory function. Instead, herbal medicine can be used to push the body to where it will be more optimally suited to aid conception.
Given most cases of infertility involve varying degrees of age related poor egg quality, herbal medicine is definitely the best way to go about treatment.
