It was a cold November afternoon when Emma* first presented in my clinic. She was pale and drawn and looked exhausted. Emma had just been told that she would never have a child naturally due to endometriosis that had gone undiagnosed for a number of years. She was clearly still reeling from the news.

IVF was mentioned as her only option of ever having a baby but Emma wasn’t sure if that was a route that was right for her. As we talked one thing became clear to me as a practitioner. Our starting point was to get Emma’s stress levels down and improve her overall health. So, I suggested taking fertility off the table until the New Year and concentrating on getting her back on her feet. The look of relief on her face was all the confirmation I needed that this was the right course of action.

Suggesting to Emma that we forget about her fertility issues for a while allowed her to relax mentally and cleared the way for me to get to work. While I diligently planned out treatments to destress Emma and get her body to function better I also planned on tackling her reproductive system, and therefore her fertility, as this was the system that was malfunctioning. And the effect was quite amazing.

We discovered that Emma is a top responder to acupuncture. Most of us are average responders, we fall somewhere in the middle, we react well to treatment but it takes a little while, a few people are slow responders and some people are fast responders. Emma fell into the latter category. The first treatment saw her pallor return to normal, her hair to shine and her eyes to sparkle. She reported a huge shift in her mood and her sleep and she couldn’t believe how positive she felt. The second treatment resulted in even more progress with massive relief from her endometriosis symptoms. At the fourth treatment while taking her pulses I caught my breath. She was pregnant! I was sure of it but it was so early I didn’t say a thing. The following week when she arrived for her treatment she just looked at me and said, “You knew!” and then we both had a little cry.

Throughout her pregnancy Emma attended me diligently. She continued to respond amazingly to treatment so that each issue only required one session or two at the most. I treated her pregnancy-induced back pain, her work-related shoulder pain, a pregnancy-induced rash that drove her crazy and was stopping her from sleeping, and lastly I helped her prepare for her labour and birth. A couple of weeks ago her beautiful daughter entered our world. Just 10 months after being told by the medical profession that she would never have a baby, through acupuncture Emma is now a proud Mum.

This is what Emma has to say, “Acupuncture has been life changing for me. Having suffered for years with undiagnosed endometriosis, I know have symptom relief without any medication and I have never felt better. My husband and I also have a new bundle of joy, something which we thought would not happen for us!”

*Not the patient’s real name.