FERTILITY ACUPRESSURE BASICS
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Acu-pressure can be a great layer of simple and effective DIY care for lots of women’s reproductive health and fertility concerns. This lesson will help you learn the basics so you can then add specific lessons from this acupressure series to customize a treatment that works for you!
In this video you’ll learn.
How acupressure works
Why it’s great for fertility — with or without acupuncture
Basic techniques, timing, and tools
Acupressure precautions where we’ll cover what’s okay if you might be pregnant
Here’s to learning new things!
Nicole
Nicole Lange
LICENSED ACUPUNCTURIST
HOLISTIC FERTILITY EDUCATOR
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Hi there!
Nicole Lange, acupuncturist and creator of The Baby You Want online fertility program here. And today we are going to start a quick series of DIY acupressure lessons that you can use on your fertility journey and for loads of other great things too. This is the Fertility Acupressure Basics video.
In this video here's what you'll learn.
How acupressure works.
Why acupressure can be great for fertility, and I'm talking with or without acupuncture in the mix too.
Basic acupressure techniques, timing, and tools.
And acupressure precautions. In this section I'll specifically cover whether or not acupressure is a good idea when you are, or may be, newly pregnant. Let's get started.
I like to think of each of the nearly 400 acupuncture or pressure points on the body like they're tiny little thermostats. Over thousands of years, with lots and lots of close observation, we've gotten a feel for which thermostats influence which body functions. For example, some acupressure points are more commonly used for pain, others for sleep, others for digestion, and so on.
Acupressure stimulates those thermostats using manual techniques like pressing, poking meeting, or massaging them, where acupuncture uses needles. Either way the body tends to respond when you tweak a thermostat.
Now for much of the history of traditional Chinese medicine, that's TCM, the underlying mechanisms weren't really understood and it didn't really matter. TCM is observation based and experiential, which is basically a nice way of saying we just watch and we note and we repeat and we trust it'll work and it does. Of course there have always been theories as to why it works. And historically most of the classic theories boil down to the idea that there is energy, or qi, in the body and acupuncture or pressure can help that qi to sort of wake up and circulate freely and improve your health.
Today we have all sorts of additional interesting technology that can help clue us into some of the biophysical changes stimulating acupuncture points can elicit in a body. Things like releasing neurochemicals; like endorphins, ACTH, GABA, serotonin, and dopamine, which can in turn do amazing things like regulate inflammation, mood, circulation, and so much more.
We also have cool technology like FMRIs, and Doppler ultrasounds to show us things like stimulating acupuncture points can help regulate the nervous system and take us out of fight, flight, or freeze mode and move us into rest, digest, and reproduce mode.
It can be a really great option to get acupuncture with needles, but that's just not an option for everyone. Maybe you're terrified of needles or you're totally needled out from doing IVF. Maybe it's not in your budget or you don't live near an acupuncture clinic or the only acupuncturist near you is really strict and stresses you out. You do not have to do acupuncture.
And even if you can and you do get acupuncture and you absolutely love it, I'm a big fan of looking at needles as a fabulous way to tweak specific concerns and also a great full body and mind reset. But I firmly believe that it is way, way better if you can walk out your acupuncture clinic door and maintain or even build on these things instead of having to slide back down to baseline and come in over and over and over to have your acupuncturist redo it.
Of course, a huge part of doing this and a finding overall balance and health and making holistic fertility progress with or without acupuncture is all about lifestyle choices, education, reframes, and coping strategies. And that is what The Baby You Want is all about.
I don't want you to give either or both acupuncture, or acupressure, more power than what they deserve. So think of them like I do: potentially helpful spot treatments to troubleshoot things and overall nervous system resets. And think of needles, especially needles plus electrostimulation, as maybe turning the thermostat dial up or down a little more strongly, and acupressure as a more subtle adjustment.
Subtle, but easier to do yourself and do regularly and possibly do on your own between acupuncture treatments if you're doing them too. All for free. Remember, small things add up.
The easiest and most used acupressure techniques are done with simple manual pressure. In other words you just use your hands and there is no special gear needed. You can push, usually using your thumb or a few fingers together, into a point and then just hold for the intensity level and duration that feels right for you. You can also press and release in a rhythmic way, make gentle little circles on a point, or even tap on some points.
As I'm teaching you specific points in other videos I will be sure to share the most common techniques used for each specific point. But really though, there's not much you can do wrong with acupressure so long as you're listening to your body and staying within your comfort zone.
And really, acupressure is not a no pain no gain kind of technique. Some points might end up feeling a little tender or achy, that's good, but these treatments should never cause real pain. The stress of that pain will offset the benefit of the treatment and it won't give you the results that you want.
Acupressure treatments don't have to be on a certain day of your cycle either. While it's perfectly fine to aim for doing acupressure around your ovulation or on an IVF transfer day or any other specific part of a cycle, and it's lovely if things line up and it feels good, you don't have to stress or fixate on there being some magic perfect timing or force it if it adds to your overwhelm.
Just like the pain, this mentality is going to outweigh the benefit of the points. So just don't do it.
As for treatment duration, I think a good basic rule of thumb is to aim for anywhere from two to 10 minutes of total treatment when you're doing this yourself, where you maybe stimulate each point for one to two minutes total.
So if you're only doing one pressure point this means you might just tap or circle or press and hold for one minute, maybe on each side, and then be done. If you're doing say three different points in a treatment, you could rotate through them and spend 30 seconds to a minute on each point and go through them all one or two times for a total of three to 10 minutes of treatment.
Acupressure should not take up a lot of your time. If you're looking for ways to make a session last longer you can experiment with doing more points or spending a little more time or coming back to each point more times. But you might also consider combining the acupressure with something else.
Maybe you do pressure points for five minutes then you set a timer and you breathe for three more. Or you do acupressure and then you journal for two pages. Or do five minutes of really good stretches. Again, think small and cumulative, not one magic bullet.
This is key. Truly holistic fertility is about cultivating a healthy menu of options so you can pick and customize and tweak and find what's best for you.
There are a few other tools you might like for stimulating acupressure points for longer durations of time. There are loads of tools like acupressure bracelets, or knobby little massage tools, or acupressure balls and rollers. Don't be afraid to get creative and use other stuff too: foam roll over a point, use a plain old tennis ball, cause some friction over a point by rubbing it with a dry washcloth or even the side of a coin, which is actually a classic technique of dermal friction called gua sha.
Acupressure beads or seeds or even crystals are becoming more and more popular too. Especially for ear acupressure points. You might even see ads for them popping up on your social media feeds. These sort of stick-on options can generally be left on for anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
And you might wonder if I think you need to get some specific type of crystal or metal for the best results. And the short answer is no.
Some people may tell you that different materials have different healing properties or energies about them, and maybe they do, but I'm not personally so into that. If it floats your boat and it doesn't stress you out, that's fine. But I'm much, much more about doing what feels right overall for you. That means for your body, for your style and for your budget.
So if you love to sparkle and you want to splurge on some Swarovski acupressure crystals, go for it and bling it up. But just know you don't have to.
There are some points that have a reputation for being 'dangerous' if you're pregnant. In the fertility community this often translates to folks avoiding these points completely from ovulation through the entire back half of the cycle just in case. If I'm teaching you points that fall into this camp, I will be sure to mention it so you can make your best choice. But I want to be very clear on what the actual science says about these points.
It turns out that even when you do all, and I'm talking all of the acupuncture points that have been historically avoided or used with caution during pregnancy, you still do not cause miscarriage or pregnancy loss. Not to be too blunt, but rest assured if you could cause an early loss or a miscarriage with acupuncture or acupressure, there would be a huge market for these treatments. And there is not because it doesn't work.
A 2019 meta-analysis of acupuncture during IVF even made a point of concluding there is no evidence that acupuncture contributes to miscarriage. And as we already established, acupressure is more subtle than acupuncture. So probably even safer.
So if you have an old school acupuncturist who says something like, "I'm not going to do this point today because you might be pregnant," and if that freaks you out or that makes you worry that doing acupressure might wreck something, please please please know that that is just an old school TCM teaching and it's fine if that's how they want to practice. But even if they did the point, and even if you were pregnant, you and your pregnancy would be fine.
As you've probably already guessed I am not crazy about spending half of every single month terrified that one wrong move is going to ruin a pregnancy. It's a terrible mentality and it's brutally hard. That's why one of my very favorite mantras is, "We would be extinct."
We would be extinct if pressing on your legs or massaging your ears ended a pregnancy. I say it all the time. We need to push back on pseudoscience and hurtful pressures and messages and beliefs that aren't legit and make us miserable and are way too common in the world of infertility.
That said there are just a few things you should be cautious around when you're doing acupressure. If you're using pressure or friction, you should never apply these things over big pulsing blood vessels. I will not be teaching you any points like this, but just in case you're trying random things this is a good rule to know.
You should also not use acupressure over any areas that might be infected or have open or healing wounds. For example, acupressure over a laparoscopy incision would be a big no-no. Which it kind of gives me the creeps just to think about so it's pretty dang intuitive.
And on that note my friends we will wrap up this Fertility Acupressure Basics video. Here is what we just covered.
How acupressure works, why acupressure can be great for fertility, basic acupressure techniques, timing, and tools, and acupressure precautions — now you know pregnancy is not one of them.
I'll be adding specific point videos to this playlist and we will build from here. Please subscribe if you want to be sure you know when these new videos come out. I would love, love, love for you to check out The Baby You Want full program too.
Thank you so much for taking the time to watch this video. Remember I am out in the world cheering you on.
Start here to learn some amazing fertility acupressure points at home.