Can Acupuncture Help with Fertility?

Can Acupuncture Help with Fertility?

Jan 16, 2025 | Acupuncture

An Interview with Resilient Health’s Carly Brohawn

Every once in a while, Carly Brohawn, LA.c, Dipl.Ac, receives a little bundle of joy delivered directly to her email; a photo of a new baby, made possible—at least in part—by acupuncture treatments she provided the mother or father months prior.

A licensed acupuncturist and nationally , Carly studied women’s health at the Virginia University of Integrative Medicine, where she also earned her master’s in acupuncture.

After graduating, she worked at several different acupuncture practices. One served a large population of men and women who were trying to conceive. Her interest – and her training – in the use of acupuncture to improve fertility outcomes continued to expand.

In January 2024, Carly joined the Resilient Health Acupuncture & Wellness team, encouraged by a Traditional Chinese Medicine bond shared with owner Kristy Hanley.

So… Can Acupuncture Help with Fertility?

“Acupuncture can help regulate the menstrual cycle, which is important when trying to conceive,” Carly explains. “Many women who are struggling to get pregnant may have PCOS or irregular cycles, so that’s a really important place to start. Making sure that the cycle is regular and happening every month can prime us to do further work for fertility.”

Overall, she notes, acupuncture can improve the success rate for natural pregnancies as well as other interventions like IUI and IVF.

However, the benefits of acupuncture as a fertility treatment do not end there. Not only has acupuncture been shown to reduce stress and anxiety – a key factor in improving seed, egg, and embryo quality – but it can also improve uterine receptivity, which helps to prevent miscarriages and allows the fetus to develop in the uterus.

Acupuncture, she continues, can also:

  • Improve blood flow to the lower abdomen and uterus.
  • Assist with fertilization and implantation.
  • Induce the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the body’s natural healing state.
  • Reduce inflammation for people with endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which can vastly improve fertility outcomes.
  • Enhance men’s sperm quality, including motility, morphology, and count.
  • Reduce small fibroids, which could otherwise create an obstacle to a successful pregnancy.

But that’s not all.

“Acupuncture also helps produce adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, to fuel mitochondria.”

One egg, she notes, contains 600,000 mitochondria.

“As we get older, those can decline,” Carly says. “That means acupuncture treatment can help older women who are trying to conceive.”

If that wasn’t enough, acupuncture has also been shown to benefit the body’s gut health and microbiome overall, while reducing oxidated stress, a mechanism that improves egg and sperm quality.

When Should Acupuncture for Fertility Begin?

During an initial 90-minute visit with patients, Carly reviews their full health history, including any fertility-related interventions that have been attempted thus far. An in-depth consultation relating to their diet and lifestyle follows, including any supplement recommendations.

“It’s a very comprehensive first visit,” she says.

As a rule of thumb, Carly and the Resilient Health team recommend seeing patients twice a week for the first two weeks, and then typically once a week thereafter.

“But that all depends on where they are in their fertility journey,” she says. “Some people come to us right away when they’re about to have an IVF transfer. That situation is somewhat different than a patient who is generally trying to conceive.”

While patients can start fertility treatments at any time, Resilient Health Acupuncture & Wellness recommends women begin treatment on day one of their period.

“That’s the way our upcoming program is going to be tailored – throughout their cycle. That is kind of seen as the beginning of the journey. Stage one begins on that first day of menstruation.”

“I think treatment should begin as soon as possible,” she adds. “Early intervention is the best resource.”

About Red Light Therapy

Resilient Health Acupuncture & Wellness has long leveraged light therapies to safely treat a wide range of conditions, from reducing inflammation to improving circulation.  

Red light therapy, says Carly, is based on the mechanism of photobiomodulation, or the usage of light energy to regulate biological processes. At Resilient Health Acupuncture & Wellness, it is frequently used in tandem with acupuncture.

“There is a specific wavelength that red light emits that can be adjunctive to acupuncture treatment,” she says. Regarding fertility, it is often tapped to improve blood flow, reduce inflammation, and increase adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, that crucial energy molecule that powers egg development, as mentioned, as well as sperm motility.

“We’ve researched this topic in our clinic and have definitely seen some positive results for men and women,” Carly says. “Not only are there very few side effects to red light therapy, but it also seems to be very helpful for women who are over 35 or have an underlying condition, as well as men who are experiencing a sperm-related issue.”

A Positive Outlook

Many studies have been conducted on the benefits of acupuncture on fertility, Carly says, though they have been small and/or limited in scope. While science remains mixed on the benefits of acupuncture for fertility, for the Resilient Health & Acupuncture team, there’s no arguing with success.

“It’s been amazing to partner with women… who have been trying to conceive for over a year or have had miscarriages, and then having that moment when the patient comes in and exclaims, ‘I’m pregnant,’” she says. “It’s such a joyous moment, and I feel fulfilled that I’m helping people change their lives in a really meaningful way.”