Resolution of Infertility Following Chiropractic Care

The August 6, 2018, issue of the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health published a case study showing the chiropractic facilitating conception in a previously infertile, or sub-fertile woman. The World Health Organization defines infertility as "... a disease of the reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse."

Infertility affects a large portion of the child-bearing age population. The study reports that between 13.2% and 15.4% of the population is infertile. In the United States alone, infertility affects over 7 million women between the ages of 15-44 years. It is estimated that 40% of the fertility problems are related to women, 30-40% to men and 10-20% are for an unexplainable reason.

Medically, the treatment for infertility depends upon any underlying pathology or cause. However, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, "Treatments for infertility can range from medications to embryo implantation through assisted reproductive technology (ART)."

The cost of ART procedures can be large. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there were 462 infertility clinics in the U.S. which performed 182,111 ART procedures in 2015. The average cost of a round of ART procedures ranged from between $10,000 and $15,000 per attempt.

In this case, a 32-year-old woman presented herself for chiropractic care with a variety of musculoskeletal pains. As part of her health history, it was noted that she was trying to get pregnant but had been medically diagnosed as being subfertile.

A chiropractic examination was performed which included static and motion palpation of her spine in addition to a postural analysis. Based upon abnormal finding in her examination, it was determined that vertebral subluxations were present. At that time the woman consented to starting chiropractic care. Six weeks after the start of chiropractic, the study reports that the woman became pregnant.

This study also reviewed about a dozen additional case studies involving women who were considered infertile prior to chiropractic care. Each of these cases had different histories and timelines as to the length of the inability to conceive. The common threat of all these case studies is that after a period of chiropractic care, the woman was able to conceive and became pregnant.

In the conclusion to the study the authors wrote, "We described the chiropractic care of patient with a history of infertility and ART and following chiropractic care, was able to conceive without the assistance of reproductive technology."