Fertility and Chiropractic Care
Thirty-five year-old Tracy had tried everything: monitoring her cycles through body temperature, over-the-counter fertility predictors and finally, fertility-enhancing drugs and in vitro fertilization. But after three years of trying, she still wasnÍt pregnant. She began to think she was too old to have a family, though she was seemingly in great physical shape.
Tracy is not alone. Thousands of women go to fertility specialists each year. After fertility treatments fail, many women are told no [about having children] because of their age. But chiropractic may offer hope. At least one recent study showed that, after receiving chiropractic care, previously infertile women were much more likely to become pregnant (Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, 2003). And while reasons behind chiropractic's success in treating infertility aren't certain, there are a number of possibilities why it may work.
Proper alignment works in several ways to increase the likelihood of becoming and staying pregnant. Chiefly, improper alignment of the cranial, spinal, and pelvic bones can hinder the nervous system, which controls a woman's reproductive system, causing imbalances and hampering her ability to get and stay pregnant.
Distortions of the sphenoid bone in the skull, which can result from passage through the birth canal or from accidents later in life, are particularly problematic, since misalignments there can affect the cranial nerve and pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is the regulator of a number of hormones important to fertility, including the follicle-stimulating hormone, estrogen, and progesterone. If any of these are out of balance, it can be very difficult to get pregnant.
Like Tracy, many patients have tried everything. They come to chiropractic as a last resort. Discussions cover menstrual health history, noting signs of imbalance, which have often been problematic since the onset of menstruation, including heavy cramping, mood swings, and missing periods. We balance the body through chiropractic. Patients follow the Six Steps to Wellness protocol and receive a combination of chiropractic and craniosacral adjustments, on average three times a week to start. After adjustments start to hold, patients visit once or twice a week depending on patient response to treatment.
How long should chiropractic take to work? We give it three months. Often women will become pregnant in the third or fourth month of treatment.