Denver Metro, Colorado | WholeFertility@gmail.com
Mind-Body Fertility Scientific Studies
Success Rate & Cost of Infertility Treatment:
Procedure Success Rate* Average Cost
IUI with Clomid
IVF
Mind-Body Work
3-6%
20-25%
42-65%
$2000
$20,000-$30,000
$500-$8000
The chart above shows the low efficacy rates and high cost of traditional infertility treatment, which is often invasive and can injure a woman's body and emotions. Mind-Body work has higher success rates and promotes health in the mind and emotions.
Meditation is well known to lower the amount of the stress hormone cortisol in the body. A Huffington Post article states, "a new study in the journal Health Psychology shows an association between increased mindfulness and decreased levels of the stress hormone cortisol." Click here to read the article.
The reason that increased cortisol levels can adversely affect fertility stems from our pre-historic ancestors. Imagine that a saber tooth tiger is chasing you. In that situation, the body releases cortisol to redirect blood flow into the legs to run or the arms to fight, which creates a shutdown of the digestive and reproductive systems because digestion and reproduction don't matter if a person is in immediate peril. Current-day Western society isn't concerned about wild animal attacks. Still, modern-day stress affects the body the same, so stress (which increases with a diagnosis of infertility) further represses the body's reproductive system.
A Harvard study published in Fertility and Sterility entitled "Mindfulness-Based Program for Infertility: Efficacy Study" showed that "women who attended a 10-weed Mindfulness-Based Program for Infertility revealed a significant decrease in depressive symptoms, internal and external shame, entrapment, and defeat. Inversely, they presented statistically significant improvement in mindfulness skills and self-efficacy to deal with infertility." Read the PubMed.gov abstract here.
According to a study entitled "Preconception stress increases the risk of infertility," published in the journal of Human Reproduction states, "women who had high levels of a biomarker for stress in their saliva took 29 percent longer to become pregnant, compared to those with lower levels, Those with high levels of the stress indicator were also twice as likely as others to meet the clinical definition for infertility." The abstract for this study can be found here, in the Human Reproduction section of the Oxford Journal.
Studies show that Fertility Coaching can help women currently undergoing IVF. A study by Dr. Eliahu Levitas of Soroka University Medical Center in Beer Sheva, Israel, found that nearly 60 percent of a group of women who were hypnotized during the transfer procedure (when the fertilized embryo enters the uterus) became pregnant, versus about 30 percent of the control group. Click here to see this study.
According to Charles L. Raison, MD, clinical director of the Mind-Body Program at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, the common elements of different forms of meditation are "a narrowing of focus that shuts out the external world and usually a stilling of the body." Read this Web MD Article: "Meditation Heals Body and Mind," here.
Both forms of meditation that I teach - Guided Visualization & Qigong Meditation - provide "a narrowing of focus that shuts out the external world and a stilling of the body." Both practices give your mind something to focus on actively, making it MUCH easier to do than other meditation practices -such as watching the breath - that don't allow your mind anything to do besides churn out random thoughts. Please click here to learn more about the type of meditation I can teach you.