WWYD poll: eastern vs western fertility treatment

AustinBride06 · December 2011

I prepaid for 24 fertility acupuncture sessions (not covered by insurance nor goes toward deductible but I can use my HSA for it) and I'll be through about 21 of them by the end of the month. It seems to be going well... my charts are getting better and better, Oing closer to cd14 every cycle, etc. And I really love the treatments, usually very relaxing. If I don't get pregnant this cycle, I'll have to decide whether or not to stay on this path of fertility acupuncture or start saving for IUIs (also not covered by insurance). I don't think we can afford to do both.

Other info that might factor in decision:

- If I do get pregnant and have already prepaid for acupuncture sessions, the following sessions would be miscarriage prevention.

- My dr didn't really think we need to discuss next IF steps until March

- Sperm has met egg resulting in pregnancy twice already, so we know it CAN happen. Could be a timing thing (though my Oct cycle was pretty well-covered timing-wise and nada) and maybe an IUI could help with that more effectively.

- Will probably contribute another 2k to my HSA in order to avoid paying too much on income taxes this year.

- 24 sessions (approx 3-4 months) of acupuncture, including herbs, costs approx $1800 if prepaid. I can get a refund of the non-used sessions if I want to quit at any time.

[Poll]

brideonjuly8 · December 2011

I'm kind of in the same boat as you. We're on month 8 of trying after my miscarriage. Acupuncture seems (or it did as of last month) to be helping me a lot. My doc has not brought up IUIs to me, under the impression that since I've *technically* been pg 3 times now, it's just a waiting game for us since we know it can happen. I don't see any reason for us to have to move on to IUIs yet. Before that I would want an HSG to make sure my tubes are still clear, an SA for DH to make sure nothing is wrong there, and another LAP. I know a LAP is much more $$ than an IUI, but if there's stuff going on in there keeping me from getting pregnant an IUI isn't going to help with that.

How many cycles (with good timing) has it been since your last m/c?

AustinBride06 · December 2011

brideonjuly8:
I'm kind of in the same boat as you. We're on month 8 of trying after my miscarriage. Acupuncture seems (or it did as of last month) to be helping me a lot. My doc has not brought up IUIs to me, under the impression that since I've *technically* been pg 3 times now, it's just a waiting game for us since we know it can happen. I don't see any reason for us to have to move on to IUIs yet. Before that I would want an HSG to make sure my tubes are still clear, an SA for DH to make sure nothing is wrong there, and another LAP. I know a LAP is much more $$ than an IUI, but if there's stuff going on in there keeping me from getting pregnant an IUI isn't going to help with that.
How many cycles (with good timing) has it been since your last m/c?

You bring up a good point... there are probably other costs and tests (that we'd be paying for until my 2k deductible is met) before and besides the actual IUI procedures.

I've just started cycle 5 after the 2nd miscarriage. It took 3 TTC cycles to get pregnant after the first miscarriage. I think all of the 4 most recent cycles have had good-to-excellent timing (though my dr disagreed with FF's optimism on this last cycle).

L L CG · December 2011

I got knocked up with Little Bean in the following manner:

Ovulation monitoring by my OB's office. I don't THINK that I was taking femara on the cycle I got pregnant but I may have been. I never had a problem with ovulating but I took femara a couple of cycles so that ovulation could be predicted more accurately. I'd go in on CD3 and then again around cd12 to see when BD would be most fruitful.

I did acupuncture for miscarriage prevention and I loved it. If we have problems next time and I feel myself getting worked up about it, I am going to do both acupuncture and ovulation monitoring.

brideonjuly8 · December 2011

AustinBride06:
brideonjuly8:
I'm kind of in the same boat as you. We're on month 8 of trying after my miscarriage. Acupuncture seems (or it did as of last month) to be helping me a lot. My doc has not brought up IUIs to me, under the impression that since I've *technically* been pg 3 times now, it's just a waiting game for us since we know it can happen. I don't see any reason for us to have to move on to IUIs yet. Before that I would want an HSG to make sure my tubes are still clear, an SA for DH to make sure nothing is wrong there, and another LAP. I know a LAP is much more $$ than an IUI, but if there's stuff going on in there keeping me from getting pregnant an IUI isn't going to help with that.
How many cycles (with good timing) has it been since your last m/c?
You bring up a good point... there are probably other costs and tests (that we'd be paying for until my 2k deductible is met) before and besides the actual IUI procedures.
I've just started cycle 5 after the 2nd miscarriage. It took 3 TTC cycles to get pregnant after the first miscarriage. I think all of the 4 most recent cycles have had good-to-excellent timing (though my dr disagreed with FF's optimism on this last cycle).

Honestly, I think you've done the right thing getting all those tests done and starting the acupuncture. I'm not your doctor, but I wouldn't be at all concerned with IUIs at this point. I called freaking out a little last month and my NP assured me I'm still fine, still in the window of what is "totally normal" for my age, even given all my reproductive issues and miscarriages. I was given the option of an HSG to go ahead and rule that out, and I think if this month doesn't work for us I'll be doing that in January, but that's the only step I'm willing to take just yet. I stopped doing the Femara because I just didn't feel it was really doing much except making my cycles shorter and Oing on time. The acupuncture seems to be helping, though this month is probably going to be off because I've been sick, had the allergic reaction, antibiotics, and now I've got stitches in my foot, so I'm not at all surprised I haven't ovulated yet LOL.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is I would just keep doing what you're doing. I know, I KNOW it's hard to be patient. Believe me, after 19 months of this shiit I'm SO ready to be done. I'm just not ready to get more aggressive yet, and a lot of that has to do with costs and added stress.

This time around is taking MUCH longer than in the past. It took 3 cycles to get pg with DS, 4 with my chemical pregnancy, and 4 with my last pregnancy. So yeah, I'm getting worried and impatient, but my NP told me women my age take an average of 6-8 months to get pregnant. That made me feel a lot better. So I'm trying to keep that in the back of my mind and just try to patient.

((hugs)) hon. Believe me, I know.

austxgrl · December 2011

I was in a similar position in that I had three spontaneous pregnancies before starting fertility meds. I did everything from Clomid to injectibles to 12 IUIs all with no pregnancy and one IVF which resulted in a non-viable pregnancy. I did acupuncture with the IVF and I swear that it is the only reason that I got pregnant that round. The pregnancy did miscarry because of an issue with the embryo which is something that acu could not have helped. I have met multiple women in my IF support group that were successful with nothing but acu after years and years and hundreds of thousands spent on IF treatments. The bottom line is that Eastern medicine has been around for over 2,000 years, has a proven history and involves no chemicals at all. Whereas Western fertility meds have been around just barely longer than our lifetimes (if that), few have a proven history and most are all chemical. I personally believe with everything that I am in Eastern medicine. That is not to say that I don't believe in Western. I have heard plenty of miracle stories from Western medicine as well and lord knows I go to the doctor and take my bcp every day but with everything that I know about IF and have been through, if I were in your shoes, I would invest my money in the Eastern med. I believe in it that much.

abh1977 · December 2011

I had to make this exact same decision. Honestly, I would have tried accupuncture, etc., for a lot longer if I weren't already 34, have endo, and had been trying for over a year. It was really my age that made me start with traditional fertility treatments earlier. We want more than one child, so I felt like we didn't really have the luxury of time on our side.

I KNOW it's hard to wait, and it's a hard decision to know what to do next. I don't know how old you are, but I would stick with the accupuncture and herbs and whatnot until March, and then go with what your doctor suggests from there. Lots of luck to you!!!

texasbeachbride · December 2011

I struggled a lot with this too. Ultimately I felt like I had to have a combo of both eastern and western medicine. While I loved acupuncture and it did wonders for regulating my cycle, I ended up having to have a lap that cleared out a bunch of endo. I got pregnant the very next cycle, so I feel pretty confident it probably wouldn't have happened without that since we had already been trying for 2 years.

Something to think about. Once I kind of got regulated on acupuncture, I found that just going 1-2 times per month was all I needed to stay regular. I also never did any herbs as I personally don't put quite as much weight into them as the acupuncture, but thats just my personal opinion. Also most REs don't want you doing herbs if you are doing meds like clomid/femara/injectables. So it's possible you could cut back on the acupuncture while not giving it up and that would free up some money you could start saving if you end up needing to go the IUI/further testing/treatment route.

AustinBride06 · December 2011

Thanks everyone. This helps a lot. I really do feel like the acupuncture is helping so I think I'll try to stay on course with that... but maybe not do it twice every week to keep costs down. (Those of you who do it/have done it, how often?) And I'll try to be more patient. I know in the grand scheme of things I haven't been trying all that long (and since recurrent pregnancy loss isn't in the same boat as infertility, my "trying" cycle count started over in a way). I'll talk to DH and hopefully we can afford to keep going with acupuncture at least until March and then maybe we'll start off with something other than IUIs after that. I don't want to completely deplete my HSA though.

It's interesting, I posted this same poll on TTCAL and the IUIs/western medicine were the winner there.

carlinlp · December 2011

I voted Eastern. We've used it many times in healing our family, it just works. I find myself learning more and more about it and it just makes so much sense to me. I do think it is interesting that people use it for fertility but not in other areas of their lives (not you specifically, just in general, I see this a lot)....

Anyway, I would also recommend this book. It has rarely left my side in the last year and a half and it has a very good section on fertility. It is not cheap but it is SO worth the price tag. If you just want to read the section on fertility, Peoples Rx has one behind the counter on their book shelf. I used to go in and ask to read certain parts and take pics with my iphone of different pages before I finally broke down and bought one for myself. I still refer to it quite often for everyday stuff.

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