This question comes up a lot when making financial decisions when fertility issues arise.
The first thing to know about fertility acupuncture, is that it is a dynamic medicine that looks at each individual with specific needs. No one person is treated alike, thus there is a lot of flexibility in treatment and in specific goals/purpose of seeking acupuncture. Think of all the different scenarios that can occur to cause fertility issues, it is understandable that the treatments will vary dramatically.
An obvious example of that is treating men versus treating women for fertility.
Generally speaking, men with sperm quality issues can be treated fairly quickly with acupuncture and Chinese herbs. Although new sperm is produced every day, it takes roughly 2-3 months for sperm to completely regenerate. Two to three months of treatment is not too much time in the grand scheme of things. Therefore, the cost would be lower than that of a female patient, who may have additional factors participating in a potential fertility issue.
Another major factor in establishing the cost of fertility acupuncture is understanding the specific needs or goals of each patient.
Most of our fertility acupuncture patients are female, and issues complicating fertility can vary widely. Understanding where the patient is on their journey is important. Some general questions to ask are: Did they just start trying? Are their periods regular? Do they know if they are ovulating? Have they had any labs done? Are they currently going through IUI or IVF?
Knowing where they are is important to determine what their needs are.
For example, many fertility acupuncturists use herbal medicine in their practices to correct hormonal imbalances. Generally speaking, when doing IVF, many practitioners will not do herbs that affect hormones.
Why? Two main reasons: One reason is not to affect the outcomes of the highly controlled (and expensive) hormonal pharmaceuticals while going through IVF. The other, more likely reason, is that herbs won’t help when they are competing with stronger medications. The point is fertility acupuncture without herbal therapy will be cheaper than a patient working with herbal medicine to get pregnant.
Finally, fertility acupuncturists want to be successful for their patients!
If hormones are imbalanced, most of the time it takes up to 3 or 4 cycles to get the body back on track. Remember, your acupuncturist will have 3 to 4 opportunities to see that the body is responding correctly when their menstrual cycle arrives. The ideal scenario is to see the patient for 3-6 months while they are trying to conceive naturally. Using IUI or IVF can also be handled the same way, but in some instances, patients are just given acupuncture before or after their transfer. It all depends on the needs of the patient, so the cost can vary widely.
The bottom line…fertility acupuncture can cost anywhere between $500 to $10,000 depending on the many factors that impede fertility. It’s best to schedule a consultation with your fertility acupuncturist. They will come up with a plan that works best for where you are on your journey. Many of us do have payment options and do accept HSA or FSA cards. Although rare, some insurance policies do cover fertility acupuncture as well. As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to me and I would be happy to help.