Infertility In Women: News Reports Claim Acupuncture Can Improve Pregnancy Rates While Long-Term Stress Causes Problems Conceiving

Infertility in women has been an increasing problem.

According to Fox News, long -term stress may reduce a woman's ability to conceive by as much as 29 percent.

 A study was done from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center between 2005 to 2009, where researchers followed 401 reproductively healthy couples who were trying to get pregnant.

Over a period of 12 months, researchers reportedly recorded each couple's time-to-pregnancy and observed that by five to six months into the study, the couples who had yet to conceive were those with the highest levels of stress.

Courtney Lynch, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University, collected saliva samples from the women at the beginning of the study and after the women's first menstrual cycles in order to study stress levels.

For each woman, Lynch and her team recorded levels of the biomarker salivary alpha-amylase, which measures the body's sympathetic adrenomedullary pathway, also known as the "fight or flight" system.

Fox News reports that, unlike cortisol, a biomarker that measures acute stress, salivary alpha-amylase levels indicate chronic stress levels.

Researchers reportedly found that women with the highest levels of salivary alpha-amylase had a 29 percent reduction in their ability to conceive and more than two-fold greater risk of infertility, compared to women with the lowest levels.

It has been reported that a couple trying to conceive won't meet with an infertility specialist until after 12 months of trying. The meeting usually leads to the specialist recommending lifestyle interventions.

Lynch believes that focusing on stress earlier may be beneficial when it comes to infertility in women.

Lynch stated, "Stress is not an issue until you've tried to get pregnant for a while and not succeeded ... if you've tried for six months the key thing to recommend would be to take a look at your stress level and think about taking up some sort of stress-reduction activity such as yoga, exercising more, mindfulness or meditation."

Reducing stress may be a way to prevent infertility, but news reports claim that acupuncture may help in reversing infertility in women as well.

HealthCMi reports that acupuncture has been show to enhance the mico-circulation of blood in the uterus through the inhibition of excess sympathetic nerve activity in the uterus.

Acupuncture treatments were conducted 2-3 times per week following menstruation.

During ovulation, acupuncture was administered on 2 consecutive days.

Getting regular and consistent treatment showed to improve successful pregnancy rates.