Sperm have always been a precious commodity, given the critical role they play in generating new life. Even a relatively small change in the typical sperm count has a substantial impact on the percentage of men who will be classified as infertile or subfertile. It’s not just about sperm count, however; certain qualities, including movement patterns, are also essential for them to swim upstream to meet the egg of their dreams.

The psychological and medical burdens of dealing with fertility issues have been placed squarely on the women’s shoulders. Not only is this incorrect on the most basic level - given that it takes viable sperm + a healthy egg to create a pregnancy- it’s especially wrong now, when a high proportion of infertility issues can clearly be placed at men’s feet.

For couples who experience recurrent miscarriages, recent research has found that men have twice the level of DNA fragmentation in their sperm and 4 times higher levels of reactive oxygen species in their semen, which can cause DNA damage to sperm, than men whose partners didn’t have a history of miscarriage. In couples with recurrent pregnancy loss, the men also had reduced sperm mobility and morphology, compared to their peers.

The study of sperm began, unsurprisingly, in a fairly bizarre fashion. In 1677, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch tradesman and self-taught scientist who was fascinated with microscopes, collected his semen and examined it under a microscope, where he saw millions of tiny, wriggling shapes called animalcules (little animals) swimming in the fluid. He believed that each sperm contained a miniature, preformed human being that would unfurl and develop inside the mother after being nourished by the female egg.

Although acupuncture and Traditional East Asian medicine (TEAM) for the treatment of infertility has been practiced for thousands of years, the combination of acupuncture with in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intrauterine insemination (IUI) has emerged in recent years as an effective method for improving pregnancy and live birth rates.

Infertility is an issue which impacts one in six couples trying to have a baby. While the reasons couples experience difficulty becoming pregnant may vary, the struggle is the same. Thousands spent on treatments, time, effort, hormones, and the range of emotions couples endure is exhausting. Doctors have long touted the importance in folic acid for women during their childbearing years, as well as during pregnancy. One issue impacting infertility is a defect in the Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase or MTHFR gene, but there is good news. Despite MTHFR, acupuncture for fertility can be effective.

Infertility is defined as the inability of a sexually active, non-contracepting couple to achieve pregnancy in one year, but very few men or women are truly infertile. Most couples who have been given a diagnosis of “infertility” are merely out of balance, and from a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, are entirely treatable. For the 1 in 8 couples experiencing infertility each year, acupuncture and TCM may be just what the doctor ordered. In fact, it has been shown that acupuncture boosts fertility rates for couples by enhancing both male and female fertility.

Endometriosis is an often painful gynecological disorder in which the uterine lining (the cells of the womb) begin to proliferate outside of the womb itself, like the bowels, the abdomen, and in rare cases even the brain and lungs, which can lead to severe and sometimes fatal events. Luckily, acupuncture, herbal medicine, dietary modifications, and other natural remedies can be immensely beneficial in the treatment of endometriosis.