Getting pregnant is not easy for many couples, so why not use the best of both worlds to achieve it?
The Word Health Organisation claims that 15 per cent of couples seek medical assistance for infertility. And considering there is only a small window for conception each month, it is no surprise that an estimated 10 to 15 per cent of couples fail to conceive within their first year of trying, says fertility specialist Dr Sheila Loh.
Dr Loh is consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Raffles Hospital's month-old IVF clinic at the Raffles Women's Centre, which incorporates traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) into Western treatments for infertility. She sees two new patients a day for fertility problems.
When should couples seek help? "If they have tried to get pregnant for a year without contraception and have been unsuccessful, then they are considered infertile and should see a doctor."
There are other types of assisted fertilisation, but in vitro fertilisation (IVF) is one of the most common within the Western medical fraternity. It involves harvesting a woman's eggs and fertilising them with sperm in a laboratory. Then, the fertilised egg is transplanted back into the woman's womb.
This technique has been around since the 1970s, but the success rate is about 20 per cent.
To increase those odds, any couple who attends Dr Loh's clinic on the 12th floor of the Raffles Hospital may find themselves heading upstairs to the Chinese Medicine clinic.
Said Dr Loh: "During consultation and after analysis of fertility, we sit down with the couple and tell them what the proposed treatment would be. We ask them to consider it and also whether they may want to try something more natural."
Some patients request to combine acupuncture with Western fertility treatments.
Said Dr Koh: "There have been some - though not many - studies in the US, Europe and Australia that show that acupuncture could complement our medical techniques and science."
Up at the TCM clinic, the feel of the area is, well, continents apart. There is a distinctly Chinese feel to the place, from the style of the chairs and the Chinese paintings on the walls to the faint smell of dried Chinese herbs - all making for a more calming environment.
Acupuncturist Jin Jin Hua claims that the 4,000-year-old practice of using hair-thin needles to penetrate and stimulate organs can work alongside IVF to create a successful pregnancy.
She said that acupuncture works for infertility by increasing the production of endorphins in the brain, which helps people de-stress and relax.
Ms Jin also said that the traditional treatment can help stabilise hormone levels for the couple. For men, this may mean increased sperm production.
In their wives, acupuncture can improve the blood supply to the ovaries and the uterus. This makes it easier for the uterus to nourish a foetus and this effectively reduces the risk of miscarriage, she said.
And there is some scientific evidence to back this up, said Ms Jin. "A German study published in April 2002 showed that 42.5 per cent of women who underwent acupuncture, once before and once after the transfer of the embryos in the uterus, became pregnant.
"Without the acupuncture, only 26.25 per cent became pregnant."
Acupuncture proven A more recent study, published in May last year in the American medical journal Fertility and Sterility, had similar results.
Doctors in Denmark assigned 273 patients to one of three groups: one group had acupuncture on the day of embryo transfer; a second group had acupuncture first, then had their embryos implanted into their wombs and then acupuncture two days later; the last group was a control group that did not receive acupuncture treatment at all.
In the first group, 39 per cent of the patients became pregnant. In the second group, 36 per cent became pregnant, indicating that the extra acupuncture made no difference.
In the control group, only 26 per cent achieved pregnancy.
Over at Raffles, Dr Koh believes that integrating acupuncture at least helps relieve some stress and anxiety that patients may face.
Many feel pressure as they try to conceive and repeated failures can drive up a couple?s stress levels and impact on their relationship.
Said Dr Koh: "The stress of infertility is hard for the couple to handle." But there are no guarantees, with or without acupuncture. Dr Koh's message, therefore, is one of caution.
She said: "You don't want your relationship or life to be put on the line.
"Agree on a timeline for achieving pregnancy, whether it is by IVF or some other fertility treatment."
