Can acupuncture help me with endometriosis? Let’s take an example of a patient case study. The question is “I was diagnosed with endometriosis. My tubes were fine; the doctor said my endometriosis was still a mitigating factor in my infertility and that once I had the laparoscopy to get rid of the endometriosis I should be fine. I had a laparoscopy eight months ago and I’m still not pregnant.” The patient is 33 years old and she’s wondering why she’s not pregnant and how acupuncture herbal medicine might help.
Here is my answer. When a laparoscopic surgeon does a laparoscopic intervention to eradicate endometriosis, the surgeon sees what appears to be endometriotic tissue. This tissue can be identified because its color is different than normal tissue (it’s purple, black or gray) and so the surgeon will resect that tissue that’s discolored. The problem though is some endometriotic adhesions look exactly like normal tissue so the doctor can’t remove what he or she can’t see. So even after a laparoscopy, there are patients that still have endometriotic adhesions within the pelvic cavity. How does it contribute to infertility? Endometriosis is an inflammatory disease and even though it’s a disease that occurs outside of the uterus, it still has an effect on the uterus through the inflammatory process. It makes the uterine environment more inflamed and it prevents certain things from occurring in the uterus that is necessary for implantation.
What acupuncture and herbs can do very effectively, very often is to significantly reduce the inflammatory environment in the uterus, thereby creating a more normal and amenable environment for an embryo to implant and hopefully to have a full-term pregnancy with live birth.
