So the session on saturday concludes my acupuncture treatments (for the time being).
After a conversation with an an ex-colleague, I learnt about how she conceived successfully with the help of acupuncture. She has failed her first IVF with KKH, switched to a private practitioner, and underwent Lucrin injections before she began another cycle of IVF. For her 2nd cycle, she added acupuncture as part of her infertility treatments. Miraculously, she succeeded hence highly recommended me to give a try.
The TCM practitioner is none other than Zou Yu Min who practices acupuncture at a small TCM hall with her name at Blk 505 Ang Mo Kio Ave 8. I too, decided to give it a shot, hoping that it will also help me succeed in my attempt to conceive.
While I will still stick to SGH (because I’m still eligible for government subsidy and I have 1 more shot with my 2nd and also last embryo which is frozen and kept with SGH), I hope this additional treatment will improve the environment aka my womb for my egg to implant. Apparently, this treatment does that, improves the quality of eggs and reduce undesirable side effects that comes along with the monthly affair such as aches, bloatedness e.t.c.
Each session lasts 40 minutes – 20 minutes for the abdomen and calves, and 20 minutes for the back. If you are worried about the pain, you should be comforted to know that the needles are so thin that the prick is hardly felt and if felt, gone in a split second. When I’m distracted, I would not have noticed the prick too.
However, being the nervy me, plus the insertion is done one by one, and there’re about 10 for the front and 6 on the rear (not concurrently but first front first then back), I tend to be uptight, no matter during which session, and stayed exceptionally still so that she don’t miss the acupoint.
Please don’t get me wrong. She’s definitely experienced and has helped many, even those in their forties conceived. While there may be more than one success factor, she definitely does her best for each patient.
The waiting time is abhorrent though. It could stretch between half at hour at its shortest to 1.5 or even 2 hours at its longest. Most of the time, it’s waiting for a vacant bed for the acupuncture to take place. An appointment is necessary, although you may not always get through the line. Try to book at least 3 days in advance as her slots are filled up very quickly with both existing, repeating and new patients. She’s often packed to the brim, seeing up to 8 patients an hour. There’re only 5 beds in that puny space she owns so waiting is inevitable.
Ladies who wish to get pregnant typically do not undergo acupuncture when they visit her the first time as they are often having their menstruation. The practitioner usually recommends commencing treatment on the 4th or 5th day of menses, where the flow has lessened significantly. The effect of each treatment typically last 2 – 3 days so she usually encourages female patients to undergo the treatment twice, or even thrice, a week if time permits.
I started in May and went for my FET last week. On the day of FET, I went back after my procedure to have acupuncture done. As undergoing acupuncture post FET is said to help the egg implant, I took no chances and returned every alternate day for the same treatment that week.
Now, all that I could have done is done.
Today’s the 2nd week of my two-weeks wait. We shall know the outcome by the end of this week.
twoweekswait 