Many practitioners don't like acupuncture success stories to appear too miraculous. In my experience, though, acupuncture anecdotes are frequently startling. I am acquainted with the case histories of 10 women aged 36-43 who sought acupuncture to help with conception. Only one had IVF in tandem with it. One had had a string of unexplained miscarriages. Another had been trying to conceive a second child for eight years without success. Two had lost babies at birth and their grief was, unsurprisingly, counterproductive to conception. The rest, myself included, had been trying for a while and felt that nature needed a boost. Eight of us fell pregnant, including the miscarrying woman and the eight-year-gapper (who did so in weeks) the bereaved mothers and the IVF patient. My second son is due on March 9. One gave up after five sessions and the last is still four months into treatment. Kite says 72% of women who have visited his clinic over the past 18 months to boost fertility (whether in combination with IVF or without) have become pregnant and carried a baby beyond the first trimester. The majority are 37 or older.
Cynics cite the placebo effect, but Kite queries why this is viewed as a negative thing: "If you pop a pill from a doctor you like and respect, it will be far more effective than taking medication from one you mistrust. Quality of care is vital when it comes to fertility."
The Kite Clinic has just received a grant from the King's Fund (an independent charitable foundation working to improve healthcare) to finance a study in conjunction with Exeter University into the effect of acupuncture on people with MUPS (medically unexplained physical symptoms) including unexplained infertility. Kite hopes the results will help persuade sceptics of acupuncture's measurable efficacy. But in conversations with his patients, I sense most don't require a scientific reason why acupuncture aids fertility - as long as it does.
