Acupuncture used to treat infertility on KTVB

Acupuncture used to treat infertility

More than 6.5 million women have difficulty getting pregnant in the United States, according to the CDC. Many of those women turn to modern day science, but more and more couples who want to have a baby are trying an age-old treatment for help.

EAGLE - More than 6.5 million women have difficulty getting pregnant in the United States, according to the CDC. Many of those women turn to modern day science, but more and more couples who want to have a baby are trying an age-old treatment for help.

"I had gone the western medicine route so I had been going to a doctor for almost two years trying to conceive and it just wasn't happening," said Anna Miller, who is now in her third term of pregnancy.

Miller did some digging and discovered acupuncture may help. Two months after starting treatments at Eagle acupuncture she got pregnant.

"It's such a great option," said Miller. "I wish more people knew about it."

Kristin Burris has been a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist for 15 years. She owns Eagle Acupucture with her husband, Tony, who also treats infertility focusing on men.

"I tell people to be prepared for about three weeks of treatments and within that time period we almost always get good results," said Tony.

What they look for first when coming up with a treatment plan is patterns.

"So to break it down in a very simple way," explains Kristin, "If a woman is coming to me having a hard time having a baby and she's frozen all the time... her hands or cold, she's cold under her blankets... she definitely has cold in her uterus. Then, we choose points that move blood and choose herbs that are warm and warming to her reproductive organs."

Kristin says it sounds magical but it's not. She says it's the memorization of two medical systems and bringing them together. The Burrises studied three years of western medicine in graduate school and one year of Chinese medicine.

"So we're able to look at labs from a western perspective and translate that," said Kristin. "We can help guide the patient realistically with what we've seen and what potentially we can treat."

Kelly Siudzinski is an OBGYN and a mother of three.

"There are things we do in western medicine that are standard procedure like testing and medications," said Siudzinski.

But she and her husband, Greg Yerxa, choose acupuncture starting about seven years ago to help with their infertility struggles.

"We were told we may not be able to get pregnant unless we used in vitro," said Siudzinski. "I knew enough that I didn't really want to go through in vitro so I was looking for something alternative."

That's when she found Eagle Acupuncture. Siudzinski and Yerxa were both treated with acupuncture. Three months later Siudzinski was pregnant with Boone, their oldest, who is now 6. Abe and Calla followed all using acupuncture to help conceive.

If you really need research proving acupuncture works, though, unfortunalty you're out of luck.

"Finding that exact language to say how did that happen nobody has discovered that yet," said Kristin.

"But then you can look at someone like Kristin and there's a boatload of kids," said Yerxa.

The only time Eagle Acupuncture will not help with infertility issues is if you do not have reproductive organs. Of course, there are never any guarantees, but the practice has a 71-92 percent success rate within the first year of treatment. In the 15 years it has been open, nearly 500 babies have been conceived with the Burris' help. To learn more about using acupuncture for infertility click here.

Source of this report is here.