Should You Use Acupuncture Or Acupressure For Fertility?
Research shows how acupuncture and acupressure get your body ready for pregnancy, whether you’re trying naturally or with IVF. The technique is used to improve fertility by increasing blood flow, stimulating hormones, reducing inflammation and improving egg quality. But should you use acupressure or acupuncture and what's the difference?
What Is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture uses needles to stimulate points on the body to produce hormones, neurotransmitters and endorphins. There are hundreds of points on the body that connect along channels and go from fingers and toes, into organs and the brain. Acupuncture activates the body’s own regulating system to create homeostasis (or balance) and heal itself naturally.
What Is Acupressure?
Acupressure is like acupuncture but without needles. You can do it yourself using your thumb or finger to press the acupoints instead of using needles. It works in the same way as acupuncture by helping the body to heal.
Why Acupuncture For Fertility?
Research shows the many ways in which acupuncture improves fertility. The advantages of having acupuncture are that you can get a practitioner, someone else, to stimulate the points. It’s 30 minutes of ‘you-time', where you get to lie down, tune out and let someone else do the work.
The Problem With Acupuncture For Fertility?
One of the problems with having acupuncture is that you need to have weekly treatments to get results. Getting the right frequency and duration are important to allow the body time to naturally change, but many people don't give it enough time or get the frequency wrong.
It’s important to have regular sessions because there are different phases of your cycle that need different treatments to optimise your fertility. Like during your follicular phase, you need to be supporting egg development, whilst your luteal phase is about supporting implantation. It can get expensive if you’re having weekly acupuncture sessions because they can cost anywhere from £40-£200 per session. And acupuncture might not be right for you if you have a fear of needles.
Why Acupressure For Fertility?
Acupressure empowers you to improve your fertility because:
There are no needles involved.
You can do it yourself.
It’s more cost-effective than acupuncture.
You do it every day and learn which points are right for the phase of your cycle.
Little and often is better than once every week or two.
Once you've learnt the points, then they are a skill you can keep forever.
When you see your fertility signs change it will make you feel confident and in control.
You can do it on your partner to improve his fertility too.
It will 10x the beneficial effects of your fertility supplements.
The Problem With Acupressure For Fertility?
If you try to learn by yourself on Youtube or Google, then you might press a point that is not right for you, incorrect for the phase of your cycle or even dangerous if you have conceived or are pregnant.
It’s important to learn Fertility Acupressure from a qualified practitioner that has at least 3 years of training in Chinese medicine, gynaecology and obstetrics.
What's Best To Improve Fertility?
The best approach to improve your fertility is to combine activities that support your physical and mental health. Include therapies, reduce stress and create habits that balance your hormones and get your body ready to make a baby.
As a fertility acupuncturist, I teach clients to use acupressure on themselves between treatments to speed up the process and get pregnant faster. I also teach women who don't want acupuncture to use acupressure by itself.