Chiropractic
and Fertility 
You’ve tried for months, but to no avail. You’ve
talked your medical doctors ear off looking and searching for something
that may be wrong, but his tests have all come up negative. You’re
considering surgery, but there has to be another, safer, answer for
why you can’t get pregnant. Well, there is, and we’ve
been waiting for you. Chiropractic has helped couples get pregnant
for some time, from those seeking out chiropractic care specifically
for fertility issues, to those who come in for another ailment only
to conceive “miraculously” after months of failed attempts.
If you’re going through this, you are one of the six million
women and their partners in the US today that are just as frustrated
as you are.
The human reproductive process is a complex and tricky one. The timing
needs to be just right to even have a chance of becoming pregnant.
Usually, it eventually happens, but sometimes, something occurs in
the process that interferes with fertilization, which results in infertility
issues. The cause can be with the male, female, or both. About 40-50%
of the time, it’s the female that is having problems, about
20% of the time, it’s the male, and about 30-40% of the time,
it’s both. We’ll look at each of these problems separately
and provide you with ways to overcome the challenges without the expensive
in vitro fertilization.
Causes of male infertility - can be abnormal sperm count or function,
impaired delivery of the sperm, general health and lifestyle issues,
and overexposure to certain environmental elements.
Treatments - include addressing impotence or premature ejaculation.
If a lack of sperm is thought to be the issue, surgery or hormones
to correct the problem may be used, or use of assisted reproductive
technology may also help.
Causes of female infertility - can be damage or blocking of the fallopian
tubes, endometriosis, ovulating disorders, elevated prolactin, polycystic
ovary syndrome (PCOS), early menopause, benign uterine fibroids, and
pelvic adhesions… and those are the naturally occuring ones.
Other problems that females can encounter consist of certain medications,
thyroid problems, cancer and subsequent treatment, other medical conditions
such as delayed puberty, amenorrhea, or diabetes, and excessive caffeine
intake.
Treatments
include:
• Clomiphene - for ovulation problems such as PCOS
• Human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG)– an injected medication
for women who can’t ovulate at all
• Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH)– stimulates the ovary
to make mature egg follicles
• Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG)– used in combination
with the above three treatments, it causes the follicle to ovulate
• Gonadotropin-releasing hormone – a treatment for women
who ovulate irregularly or prematurely during hMG treatment
• Aromatase inhibitors – includes letrozole (Femara) and
anastrozole (Arimidex), it induces ovulation. It is used in advanced
breast cancer treatment. WARNING: this treatment IS NOT approved by
the Food and Drug Administration for inducing ovulation. It can cause
birth defects and miscarriages
• Metformin – drug used to boost ovulation when insulin
resistance is known or suspected
• Bromocriptine – a medication for women whose ovulation
cycles are irregular due to prolactin levels being too high
Fertility drugs put the mother at risk of having multiple pregnancies,
which is not good. We’re not saying twins or triplets are mistakes,
but an increased number of fetuses increase the chances of premature
labor, which raises the chances of health and developmental problems
in the baby. If this does happen because of drugs or fertility treatments,
they need to be watched very carefully to ensure optimal survival
odds and for any signs of birth defects. Other options include surgery
to the affected area, but doesn’t always work and is usually
expensive, or assisted reproductive technology (ART) which is basically
a team of health professionals working together to figure out what
the problem is and then helping you to become pregnant. The thing
is, it works best when the woman has a healthy uterus, responds well
to fertility drugs, and ovulates naturally, basically a perfectly
healthy woman that can’t become pregnant using any of the previously
mentioned methods that are much cheaper.
While there aren’t many ways to treat male infertility, avoiding
drug and tobacco use, and limiting alcohol consumption, is a good
start. Also, high temperatures temporarily effect sperm production
and mobility, so avoid hot tubs and steam baths.
A woman can increase her chances of becoming pregnant by exercising
moderately (but not too much that your periods are infrequent), avoiding
weight extremes (overweight is just as bad as underweight) avoid alcohol,
tobacco, and street drugs (may affect your ability to conceive), limit
caffeine (no more than 200mg, or two cups of coffee a day), and also
limiting medications (prescription and non-prescription drugs may
effect your ability to become pregnant).
How does chiropractic help? While each of the treatments discussed
tries to help one or two aspects of becoming pregnant, chiropractic
helps them all by improving the nerve function between your reproductive
system and your brain. Your brain is the “on/off” switch
that controls everything about your reproductive system, and when
it can’t “say” something, then that something isn’t
going to happen, causing infertility in one of the two partners, and
sometimes both. Much cheaper than most of the above treatments, and
usually covered by insurance, chiropractic is an obvious and safe
alternative to dangerous drug treatments that increase the possibility
of defects in the pregnancy. Chiropractic helps the body function
naturally, like it was designed to.
***Information cited from Burtis Chiropractic, Fairmont, Minnesota
Here
are a few videos that may help you decide on chiropractic care:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnZOeEY08gE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zB_ZGG_XTs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PAzpqEmJZk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0deLP4wboWk