acupuncturist Michael McIntyre, the chairman of the European. Herbal
Practitioners Association, believes that complementary therapies can have a
profound.
H E A LT H & B E AU T Y
Talking point Can complementary therapies help you conceive? By Barbara Lantin Given the high profile of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and other assisted conception techniques, it is easy to forget that most of the time, they do not work. Among women under 35, the success rate for IVF is a meagre 28.2 per cent, a figure that plummets to 10 per cent in the over-forties. With private IVF treatment costing upward of £4,000 – only about 25 per cent of cycles are NHS-funded – it is unsurprising that patients are keen to maximise their chances and are increasingly turning to complementary therapies. ‘We are always being asked by patients if there is anything they can do to improve their chances of success,’ says Zita West, a midwife and fertility expert. ‘Lifestyle factors such as exercise, diet, smoking and stress can have a huge impact.’ A few years ago, most IVF consultants would have laughed in the face of any patient bold enough to air views like these.
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‘IVF is not that successful; everybody is desperate for anything that can help’ Today referrals from doctors to complementary practitioners have become almost commonplace. ‘There is a lot of interest in alternative approaches,’ concedes Stuart Lavery, director of the IVF unit at Hammersmith Hospital in west London. ‘Conventional medical approaches, specifically IVF, are not that successful and everybody is desperate for anything that can help.’ Louisa and Bob Harris’s first attempt at IVF, after two years of trying for a child, ended in failure. Advised to take a threemonth break before their next IVF cycle, they decided to supplement the high-tech approach with complementary therapies. Louisa tried acupuncture, counselling and visualisation exercises in which she was encouraged to imagine herself with a baby. Both she and Bob ate a healthier diet and took supplements recommended by West, whose central London clinic they attended. On their second cycle, Louisa conceived twins, Fergus and Miranda, who were born in May.
Facts about infertility and IVF
•Infertility is usually defined as the
failure to conceive after two years of unprotected sex. It is the commonest reason for women aged 20 to 45 to visit their GP, other than pregnancy. One couple in 20 will not conceive after two years of trying. In 2003/2004 (the latest year for which figures are available) 38,264 IVF treatment cycles were carried out in the UK, resulting in 8,251 successful pregnancies and 10,242 babies. In Europe, only France and Germany had more treatment cycles, with 59,296 and 84,829 respectively. The UK has one of the lowest levels of treatment cycles in proportion to its population. When it comes to success rates, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have the highest proportion of live births following IVF. Useful contacts Michael Dooley: 0870-240 8745; mdooley.co.uk. Dooley’s approach is summarised in his book, Fit for Fertility (Hodder Mobius, £12.99). Michael McIntyre: 01993-830419. Zita West: 020-7580 2169; zitawest.com. Xiao-Ping Zhai: 020-7908 3866; zhaiclinic.com.
•
‘Did all the therapies help me become pregnant?’ the 32-yearold City-based manager asks. ‘I honestly cannot say. I was stressed and Zita’s programme helped me to relax. And the counselling got me to a place where I felt that if we did not have kids, it was not the end of the world.’ A growing body of evidence does suggest that complementary
‘Doctors are often too quick to refer couples for IVF. I look at the cause of the problem’ therapies can help couples who struggle to conceive. In a study published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, 34 per cent of women who received acupuncture along with IVF became pregnant, compared with only 16 per cent of those who were given ‘sham’ acupuncture, where the needles were stuck in the wrong place. Dr Xiao-Ping Zhai, a Harley Street fertility specialist, uses a combination of Chinese herbs and acupuncture to achieve pregnancy rates of about 80 per
cent – the envy of her peers – in couples who have been trying for an average of four years to have a baby. ‘Doctors are sometimes too quick to refer couples for IVF, particularly when the women are a bit older,’ she says. ‘I look at the underlying cause of the problem and then try to improve the condition of the egg and sperm, embryo quality and the blood supply to the womb.’ And it is not only women who benefit. Recent research at the University of Kent demonstrating that Dr Zhai’s cocktail of 37 herbs significantly reduced the proportion of chromosomal abnormalities in the sperm of infertile men suggests that the effect is more than psychological. But ultimately, the single most important factor in determining whether a woman becomes pregnant is the quality of her embryos. And the herbalist and acupuncturist Michael McIntyre, the chairman of the European Herbal Practitioners Association, believes that complementary therapies can have a profound impact here. ‘They can help to rebalance the body, maximise the ability of the eggs to mature in the first phase of a woman’s cycle and help the endometrium to support the fertilised egg in the second phase,’ he says. Michael Dooley is a wellregarded gynaecologist who has come to believe passionately in the integrated approach to infertility treatment. His 10-point ‘Fit for Fertility’ programme includes diet, exercise, stressreduction and a lifestyle review, and the clinics where he practises in Dorset and London offer more than a dozen different therapies. Given the financial, physical and emotional cost of assisted conception and the success of complementary medicine in treating both male and female infertility, some clinics now suggest that patients start with natural approaches, which are much cheaper and less invasive. Although three quarters of Dr Zhai’s patients come to her after unsuccessfully attempting assisted conception, most find they no longer need the test tube: an astonishing 85 per cent of her pregnancies are achieved without further medical intervention.
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