A holistic approach to fertility
IVF complementary medicine is diverse and provides a supportive, personal and holistic approach. The range of therapies available includes acupuncture, yoga, meditation, hypnosis, massage therapy, aromatherapy and herbal medicine. Each offers a different method of help and can be used in conjunction with conventional and evidence-based treatments, providing many benefits as part of an integrated health plan.
Couples who combine their IVF treatment with complementary medicine frequently report becoming calmer, emotionally stronger and more able to cope with the demands of the IVF regimen – and importantly, they also feel more hopeful about the outcome
Yoga
Yoga is thought to enhance the general reproductive health of women trying to conceive, increasing the blood flow to the pelvis, toning and strengthening the muscles that support reproductive organs, improving spinal alignment, enabling better circulation and boosting the capacity and quality of respiration. It can also be said that the most powerful impact of regular yoga practice on a person’s fertility is through the calming, restorative effects on the mind and body.
A researcher at Harvard Medical School conducted a study that enlisted infertile women (who had been trying to fall pregnant for at least a year) and placed some of them on a 10-week mind-body program that included yoga, meditation, nutrition and exercise to try to help change negative thought patterns. Fifty-five per cent of participants conceived within the first 12 months, compared with 20% of women in a control group.
One of the most pervasive mind-body challenges for couples undertaking fertility treatment is stress and feeling “out of control”. Stress hormones generate chemicals that weaken the body’s immunity and suppress fertility hormones, which may impair conception. Yoga, because of its use of relaxation and breathing techniques, provides an antidote to the negative emotional and physical impacts of stress, anger and depression resulting from infertility or fertility treatments.
Although there is little direct evidence to suggest that practising yoga will guarantee pregnancy, the known benefits of relaxation and reducing emotional and physical stresses can be a useful adjunct when undertaking fertility treatments
Meditation
Meditation and relaxation exercise can serve as empowering processes that can be used while undergoing fertility treatment. The relationship between stress and infertility is complex. There is minimal evidence that anxiety contributes significantly to infertility, but increasing research that depression may.
Several studies have shown that infertile women who learn a variety of stress-reducing practices, including relaxation, have higher pregnancy rates than women who do not adopt such techniques.
Physiologically, hypnosis, meditation and/or relaxation exercises are known to lower blood pressure, heart rate and the production of stress hormones. The connection between stress and decreased fertility is thought to be directly related to our biological evolution. The mind-body connection knows that in situations of extreme tension our sex organs are our most expendable parts. The mind-body link knows that stressful times do not lend themselves to making a baby.
Meditation also stimulates the pineal gland. This gland produces several hormones, two of which are serotonin (necessary for libido and wellbeing) and melatonin (another hormone connected with feelings of relaxation and wellbeing), which in turn stimulate the pituitary gland. The pituitary is the gland that predominantly regulates female reproductive hormones such as FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone, which matures the eggs in the ovaries), estrogen, progesterone and oxytocin in labour.
It is possible for hypnosis, meditation and relaxation techniques to enhance and/or change the level of certain hormones in your body.