KOLD News 13Chiropractic Care For Infertility

Chiropractic Care For Infertility

Infertility. If you haven't struggled with it, chances are you know someone who wants to become pregnant, but can't. Infertility affects more than 6 million women and their partners across the country. Now there's surprising new research that may crack the case and offer couples new hope.

Kaycee Mogel always dreamed of becoming a mother. She and her husband struggled for years trying to get pregnant. She was even on fertility drugs. Nothing worked. Then, she took a trip to the chiropractor. She says "within a couple months, I was pregnant. Oh, we're really excited."

Kaycee credits her chiropractor for the miracle. And she may be right. Startling new research shows a possible link between spinal adjustments and increased fertility in some women.

Dr. Madeline Behrendt says "it lets couples who have been infertile or couples who are planning on having a family, it offers them hope." Dr. Behrendt led a study, looking at 15 women who struggled with infertility. Some for more than a decade. Then, for various reasons, each went to the chiropractor. 14 became pregnant and are now mothers.

Dr. Behrendt says "the chiropractor identifies spinal distortions, which are called subluxations, and once they were detected and corrected, the fertility function improved."

Dr. Behrendt says there's a link between chiropractic care and fertility because the nerves to your reproductive system run through your spine. She says when the back is misaligned, the nerves misfire and cause a hormone imbalance, which can prevent a woman from getting pregnant.

But not everyone is convinced. Dr. Sandra Ann Carson is with the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. She says the study is too small and she worries it may give women false hope. "Until chiropractic care is compared to standard infertility treatment in a clinical trial, we don't really know what the side effects are to either treatments or the benefits of one versus the other."

Dr. Carson's advice to women trying to have a baby? "Talk with their health care professionals about all treatments available, their side effects and their success rates."

Dr. Behrendt admits her study is small. She hopes to launch a larger study soon. Still, she says her results are promising. She urges all women having trouble getting pregnant to consider chiropractic.