What is TCM you ask?
TCM is Traditional Chinese Medicine which is the use of things such as acupuncture, herbs and more natural therapies to treat illness and support the overall health and well being of people.
TCM is also very useful in support couples going through IVF. It has been reported that it can increase IVF success rates to around 70%
It can help with both male factor infertility (poor sperm motility or low sperm count) as well as female infertility.
I feel very fortunate that I have had the advice of Natalie from
The Pagoda Tree. Natalie is a doctor of Chinese medicine and specialises in women's health.
Natalie has been a wealth of knowledge and support for me.
After talking to Natalie during our last IVF cycle it has really cemented in my mind that I really want to, if possible, incorporate TCM into our next IVF cycle.
If we do another IVF cycle we are hoping to be able to do acupuncture with it. My hope is that it will work together with the IVF drugs to help my body produce more eggs and more importantly, better quality eggs.
Something that Natalie told me is 'it's not the number of eggs you get, but the quality of them' - this is something that I am going to keep reminding myself of so I don't focus quantity.
Now we just have to work out how much it will cost to do TCM along with IVF.
Unfortunately it can add a fair bit of cost onto what already is an expensive process.
It's also unfortunate that Medicare does not rebate anything for TCM or acupuncture :(
As well as the cost, we also have to consider the time and how many sessions we would need.
Trying to juggle the normal day to day of life and it's demands along with all the appointments it not an easy task, so to add more appointments to that is something that will take some working out
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I tried Chinese Therapy for 4 months, although the doctor was so certain i would fall pregnant i didnt, it was nice to spend a half an hour out to myself, the acupunture and cupping was so relaxing i wouldnt often fall asleep on the table!!! A lot of good tips like keeping belly warm (no baby want to grow in a leaky cold room he would tell me), chinese women would drink cold fluids and special tea for abortions! so always covering tummy, and never drink/eat cold fluids & food! Im sure many of there tips can be utilised with other treatments. They have a big success rate for infertility unfortunatly i wasnt one of them! But many people have been, maybe if i had done it longer, the therapist was sure it would work. After working on medical problems i would def go and use this therapy in conjunction to fall pregnant. For me its back to the drawing board. I would def go back and use in the future, even if for the pure relaxation i would get, even driving home i would feel like i was walking on clouds for hours afterwards which cant be a bad thing!!!
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