Silly acupuncture question

Hi everyone

I'm on my 2nd IVF cycle (1st one obviously failed). I know about all the positive research regarding IVF and acupuncture, and I am a firm believer in using it to help. I did have acupuncture leading up to my last cycle, and also pre and post embryo transfer.

This time, I am very very time poor, and I am worried about making the effort to have pre and post ET acupuncture. Last time, the acu place was in the city so I had to get there in the morning, park miles away, walk miles back, drive to Maroubra for the ET, then drive back to the city, park and walk for miles to get the post ET acu. All up, I left home at 730am and got home at 1pm.

I am just wondering about whether it is just easier and less stressful to just not have the acupuncture?

Maybe teh whole point of having acupuncture might be lost if I am so rushed and walking fast for miles to get there?

If anyone knows of a good fertility acupuncturist in Maroubra, that would also be a bonus!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts :)

Dear Neptune,

I see your frustration of having to travel so far for acupuncture. I personally do not know Sydney at all to be able to comment on that travelling obstacle. As you already know about the benefits from acupuncture, it would be a shame for you not to follow up on your sessions! Think of it as a day excursion with your husband! Its a pity you are not in Melbourne so you can just easily just drop into the bellybelly centre.

Anyway, I took the liberty to look up some practitioners at a website search on Australian Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine Association - Welcome to the AACMA website and came up with 3 names in Maroubra.

1) Name: Machelle Boothroyd
Clinic: Name Health & Fertility Matters
Suburb: MAROUBRA
Phone: 02 9344 4645
Accredited Modalities: Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Medicine

2)Name: Daniel Deng
Clinic: Name T.C.M. Healing Centre
Suburb: MAROUBRA
Phone: 02 9314 0611
Accredited Modalities: Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Medicine

3)Name: Maria Strzalek
Suburb: MAROUBRA
Phone: 02 9314 0611
Website: Australian Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine Association - StrzalekM
Accredited Modalities: Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Medicine

I personally do not know any of them but i think the first one sounds promising. She could be worth a go to find out. I am going to leave the rest up to you, hope this takes the stress out of it and good luck with the IVF! Hope to hear good news from you soon. All the best.

Wow Chris, that's great. I agree, the first one looks promising. If I can take the stress out of the travel it may be easier. I will give that first one a call, and work it out.

I am originally form Melbourne, so it is a pity I"m not there now to be able to just pop in to belly belly.

Thanks again
:D

Neptune looks like you have some good advice from Justin.
Personally I have found AP to be one of the most enjoyable and calmative aspects of AC. I have normally had AP after transfer but this time I had it the day before as well and then several days after ET.
I am sorry money is tight ATM hun. It is so hard to do all this, work to be able to pay for it and struggle financially, physically and emotionally. If you feel that AP will give you an edge on the success of your cycle (no guarantees but IME a wonderful relaxant and indulgence after all the crap you have been through) then perhaps it is worth doing if you can manage it financially. At the same time though, people do fall pg through AC with no AP. You need to be happy with the decision you can make based on your situation.

Good luck and I hope you can find a solution that doesn't stress you out. I agree try and reduce the stress you may find yourself under.
xx

Thanks Dusty - I meant poor in the sense of time, and traveling from home to the city, to Maroubra, back to the city and home again was very tiring ans stressful and I think defeated the purpose of having something relaxing done.

I have phoned and left a message with the acu in maroubra and hopefully I will be able to tee something up with them.

I hope you are feeling well!!!!!! :D I am sure I will be following in your footsteps soon ;)

:redface: whoops sorry hun. I didn't read it properly obviously ;)

Can you have your pre transfer AP the day/evening before? This is what I did and it worked out ok.

That's a good idea Dusty.....she hasn't phoned me back so I am assuming that she doesn't work on weekends. By my calculations, i should be having EPU maybe next Friday, so transfer would be the Wednesday.....fingers crossed it all works out :pray:

Hope you're having a lovely pregnant weekend ;)

Neptune - I think Chris' suggestion to find one close to you is a good one. I too believe acupuncture is helpful ... and it is most definitely relaxing - I often fall asleep. I changed acupuncturists between my 1st and 2nd rounds of IVF only because of location - I found it too stressful to try to get to the one I originally saw - I felt that it was defeating one of the main reasons of going. Now I have one that is centrally located between my office and the 2 hospitals where they do retrievals and ETs - and it worked out quite well the 2nd cycle. Also, for my 2nd cycle, I put a request to the clinic that my retrieval be on the late side (they start them at 8am) so that I had plenty of time to go before hand. She did say, that if that didn't work, doing it the day before as dusty suggests would be fine.

Just a quick update. I phoned the acupuncturist that is in the same suburb as where I have the embryo transfer, and she saw me the next day. She is very flexible and will fit in with whatever day I am having ET.

Thanks so much for all of your help!

Neptune

Thats great news Neptune! All the best in your journey!

Awesome hun! Good luck :)