Kirsten has particular expertise in successfully treating patients with fertility problems and recurrent miscarriages as well as accompanying them throughout all stages of pregnancy, birth as well as post-natal recovery.
This includes having treated many patients with the following assisted conception methods: IUI, IVF, ICSI, egg donation as well as accompanying them through surrogacy.
Kirsten was invited to become a founding member of the Zita West UK national Network for Reproductive Health in 2009 and was a member thereof until her departure for Malaysia in 2011.
She has received training and ongoing support in Zita West's comprehensive, holistic approach to achieving optimum reproductive health. This covered a wide range of treatments and approaches to help boost fertility, enhance IVF, improve pregnancy, enhance birth outcomes and support post-natal recovery.
Fertility
Please have a look at a fact sheet on Female Fertility and Infertility ART provided by the British Acupuncture Council.
The main findings are:
Acupuncture may help by:
- Regulating fertility hormones - stress and other factors can disrupt the function of the hypothalamic pituitary-ovarian axis (HPOA). Acupuncture promotes the release of beta-endorphin in the brain, which regulates gonadatrophin releasing hormone from the hypothalamus, follicle stimulating hormone from the pituitary gland, and oestrogen and progesterone levels from the ovary (Anderson 2007).
- Increasing blood flow to the reproductive organs (Ho 2009, Anderson 2007), which can improve the thickness of the endometrial lining, so increasing the chances of embryo implantation.
- Increasing egg production (Jin 2009) and improving oocyte quality (Chen 2009), which could increase the chance of fertilisation.
- Enhancing luteal function (Huang 2009)
- Regulating follicle stimulation hormone-receptor expression (Jin 2009).
- Normalising cortisol and prolactin levels on IVF medication days (Magarelli 2008); reducing stress (Anderson 2007)
- Promoting embryo implantation (Liu 2008)
- Counteracting the effects of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) (Stener-Victorin 2000, 2008, 2009, Zhang 2009). It may also help to control secondary effects such as obesity and anorexia (Lim 2010).
The following fact sheet provides information on how Acupuncture
can help with Male Infertility
Acupuncture practiced by a professionally trained practitioner is a safe treatment for many of the problems that commonly develop during pregnancy.
It can help physical problems like fatigue, morning sickness, heartburn, constipation or back pain. In addition it can also help with all the emotional issues that can develop due to the hormonal as well as anticipated life changes.
In the late stages of pregnancy Acupuncture may help with breech presentation, induction and labor.
Post-partum it may help with conditions like fatigue, vaginal discharge, mastitis as well as post-natal depression.
