I’ve been seeing Melanie for regular acupuncture appointments for around 9 months. When I started seeing her, my husband and I had been trying to conceive for over a year and a half. I had been charting, and all of my tests had been normal, so we were in the unexplained infertility category, which is incredibly frustrating. From the beginning, Melanie was friendly, knowledgeable, and so wonderful to talk to about all things infertility related. She was also convinced that we would conceive naturally. I had been charting, so we knew I had been ovulating, but late in my cycle, so after we talked for a long time at my first appointment, Melanie set about helping to get my cycle to be more regular (and also making me feel awesome, too – I always leave acupuncture appointments feeling happy and floaty). We successfully moved my ovulation date up by several days, and about 2 months after I started acupuncture, I got my first faint positive on a home pregnancy test ever! It turned out to be a chemical pregnancy (early miscarriage), but I thought it was progress – I had never seen a positive before! After that, we moved to medicated cycles and IUI treatments, and Melanie was with me, providing support, encouragement, and an empathetic ear to listen to all of my worries, anxieties, and concerns. All three of my IUI cycles were negative, which was a big blow, but I have to say that seeing Melanie throughout it all was incredibly helpful. She is very knowledgeable, not judgmental, and is a genuinely caring person who obviously relishes in developing close relationships with her patients. That has meant almost as much to me as the benefits I think I’ve gotten from the regular acupuncture appointments. My cycles have been regular, and I’ve been feeling more positive, since I’ve been seeing Melanie. And I think that has helped a lot.
After our three failed IUI cycles, we decided that we would take a month off from trying to conceive and then start IVF in January 2013. I saw Melanie only once during that month off, mainly for de-stressing and relaxation, and I truly took a break. I did not chart, did not pay attention to anything. I drank tons of wine, and had fun. In early January, I was impatient for my period to start so that we could start our IVF medications. Then, one morning, I woke up with really sore breasts. I had the random thought to take a pregnancy test, even though there was no reason to think that anything would have happened. Big. Fat. Positive!!!!!!!!! You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw that second dark line on that pregnancy test! A blood test at my RE’s office confirmed it, and Melanie was one of the first people I contacted that day! I still cannot believe that we conceived naturally, on the one cycle in the past two and a half years when we were not trying at all! I couldn’t believe it, but Melanie could. She has said all along that we would conceive naturally, and she was right. I am absolutely convinced that my regular acupuncture appointments with Melanie helped make this happen, and I am incredibly grateful to her for her support, encouragement, and positive vision throughout this whole process. I cannot recommend her highly enough, and I think that all women who are having trouble conceiving should consider acupuncture with Melanie as a complement to any other medical treatments they are trying. – Sarah