Making IVF efficacious

• SHOBHA GUPTA

As we all know that infertility is a growing problem. According to the World Health Organisation’s estimates about 8-10 per cent of couples experience some form of infertility. On a worldwide scale, this means that 50-80 million people suffer from infertility.

Infertility is complex and stressful experience and going for IVF often causes more stress to women because of fear of conceiving or not. In vitro fertilisation or IVF is a technique used to treat infertility which is widely popular and acceptable now as more and more couples are opting for it.

We have often seen that hypnotism is used when a person forgets himself/herself and goes into a trance or in a state they move in and out ofthe time. When a person drifts off to sleep at night and wake up in the morning; they move through the hypnologic state, whilst daydreaming. But science has taken a step forward and proved that hypnosis can double the chances of IVF success rate. We have introduced hypnosis or progressive relaxation therapy in IVF at our centre and the results are amazing. Our success rate has improved drastically in past one year. We have used this progressive relaxation therapy on about 206 women so far and about 65 per cent of them have conceived.

According to a research done in the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, hypnosis can double the IVF success rate. The study was conducted by Professor Eliahu Levitas. In his study of 185 women, he found that 28 per cent of women in this group who were hypnotised became pregnant compared with 14 per cent of those who were not.

Main part of IVF is the ET which is called Embryo Transfer which usually takes 10 to 15 days to contribute to an increased clinical pregnancy rate. Women may be stressed during embryo transfer from the fear that the treatment will fail or they may have a miscarriage that would effectively create an obstacle to conception. Or they would imagine that irrespective of the fact whether they conceive or not the transfer will be painful.

Hypnosis helped a woman’s uterus to remain relaxed, allowing the embryo to implant more easily. It is also possible that hypnosis produced changes in immune or hormonal uterine function resulting in an improvement in the interaction between the blastocyst and the endometrium or the lining of the uterus.

Hypnosis is one of the most effective tools that I know of for helping the mind to support the body throughout the IVF treatment, as well as to help people to cope better with the whole experience. It can enhance natural conception and compliments IVF. Your fertility can be greatly enhanced with hypnosis.

Case study:

Shilpa Jindal (name changed), a 31-year-old housewife, was diagnosed with infertility in 2013.

She told me about what the last two and half years had been like for her and how it had left her all broken.

She confided her family history, how she had turned down social engagements, holidays and family gatherings to avoid being taunted by the relativesfor not being pregnant yet.

So we counselled her, told her to perform deep breathing exercises and started the hypnotherapy procedure by taking her into deep trance, made her visualise that her baby is nearer to her.

As a result of our work, now Shilpa is happy with her year old baby girl. Hypnosis is a wonderful way to change any negative feelings and release emotional blocks.

The reason hypnosis makes such a dramatic difference is not fully known but the body can be made to relax more completely and this makes all the hormone systems work more effectively. 

You can also relax the uterus which then allows for the egg to be implanted more easily