Studies Show the Impact of Acupuncture on Egg Quality and Sperm Health

When looking at conception whether you are preparing, in the throes of having months after month of negative pregnancy tests or you have been lucky enough to get a positive pregnancy test only to lose it,  we must consider both the health of the female egg and the male sperm.  Statistically, when dealing with infertility 40%  is determined to be a problem with the egg, ovulation or uterine environment, 40% is related to the complications in male sperm health and in 20% it is a combination of both.  In the US 1 out of every 6 couples trying to conceive experience infertility. This amounts to about 5 million couples as of this writing and if you look at this trend over time it is only increasing.

The Egg

The female egg is the largest cell in the human body.  Once she has been fertilized by a sperm she begins her journey down the fallopian tube to implant in the lush uterine lining.  And like a small seedling, it begins to grow roots that will ultimately become the placenta.  The placenta will be the life force connector, supporting the developing child.  But until that system is in place the female egg must hold enough “picnic supplies” to feed the developing blastocyst, embryo and ultimately small person.  This is why she is so big.  She has to bring supplies that can last until the placenta is developed.  Without it that developing life becomes like the energizer bunny and simply runs out of power to sustain itself.

How Can Acupuncture Help With Egg Quality?

There have been numerous studies showing the positive impact of acupuncture and Chinese Medicine on the outcomes of infertility. (1,2)

• Acupuncture improves the blood flow to the ovaries and uterine environment.  Using doppler ultra sound studies have repeatedly shown an increase in blood flow to the uterus and the ovaries after 8 electro-stim acupuncture sessions.  The increases measures maintained for up to 12 weeks and then started to diminish.  Improved blood flow has also been shown to produce more and better quality eggs and embryos (2)
• Acupuncture helps regulate the neuroendocrine and endocrine systems of the body.  In a study done by Dr Paul Magarelli and Diane Cridennda, they were able to show measurable improvements in cortisol and prolactin in stimulated IVF cycles in the acupuncture group that was not seen in the non acupuncture group.   
• Acupuncture reduces stress which is a second mechanism for improved blood flow and has been shown to improve outcomes in the IVF-ET setting (3)
• Acupuncture has a modulating effect on the the immune system and this is thought to be a mechanism on the improved IVF-ET outcomes.(4)

The Sperm

While the egg is the largest cell in the human body the sperm is the smallest.  Though sperm don’t carry a picnic basket of supples they do have an important chemical in their heads to help break down the female egg’s hard exterior.  Being so small it requires 100’s of them to accomplish the job.  Actually it takes about 15 million!  So the numbers count.  A fact not often talked about until recently is the global decline in sperm count.  It has been on a consistent decline since the 1950’s when in the US the average sperm count was 200 million.  Today it is 47 million. Interestingly, in Denmark, one of the world leading green economies, that trend is reversing.  Meaning in Denmark, sperm counts are beginning to go up. We also see that sperm counts declines in non Western countries like, Africa, South American and Asia are not seeing the steep decline in numbers like in the West.  It is thought that those men haven’t been exposed to the barrage of endocrine disrupting chemicals like, plastics and pesticides and other chemicals in our food, furniture, paints, air and water.  What is yet another challenge, though infertility due to male factors is about 40-50% in those cases 50% has no identifiable cause.

Acupuncture and Sperm Health

There are numerous studies on acupuncture and sperm parameters in regards to fertility.  Like the female reproductive tract studies have shown that after just 5 minutes of transcutaneous electrical acupuncture point stimulation  (TEAS) at 10hz a significant increase in testicular blood flow was documented.   Even more importantly at  2 Hz TEAS improvements were seen in sperm count and motility in participants with abnormal parameters. (7)

There are not a lot of studies with thousands of participants.  Often when compared to sham acupuncture a clinically signifiant improvement wasn’t seen.  But I think what researchers often miss pointing out is that when you compare specific acupuncture protocols to randomly assigned points (sham) both have a positive effect, with specific points having a greater effect.  This clearly shows that acupuncture is not inert and in fact helps improve fertility parameters.  And though many of the studies are smaller we are still seeing a demonstrable positive effect leading researchers to conclude that this data demonstrates that capital should be invested into larger studies.  Combine this evidence with the fact that acupuncture is relatively non invasive, relatively painless, with hardly any major side effects it remains a good adjunct to any fertility program. 

Bethany Richardson is the owner of Enliven Health and Wellness located in San Antonio, Texas. She is a fellow with the Acupuncture and TCM Board of Reproductive Medicine. (FABORM.) To book an appointment, click here. If you live outside San Antonio, TX, you can book a Telehealth fertility appointment. We go over your lab results and create a diet, supplement, lifestyle and herbal regimen to regulate and optimize your fertility.

Reference

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21611904/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22152767/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20621276/
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acu.2019.1394
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2022.1009537/full
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9272232/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30942613/

Acupuncture photo: Katherine Hanlon