Why Did I Become a Fertility Acupuncturist?

Posted on July 10, 2011 Julie Chang, L.Ac.

I’m often asked how I got into fertility acupuncture. I don’t have a 30 second explanation because there are a lot of factors that influenced the path I’ve taken and you’re really not that interested. But I can say with certainty that working with fertility patients has been the most rewarding job for me and I’m grateful every day that I’ve found my purpose. 

To be able to give women back their reproductive power is so fulfilling. I derive a lot of joy from it because I can see from working with thousands of fertility patients how ill informed women are about their fertility. The media misleads women into thinking they can conceive easily with their coverage of celebrities having children in their 40s. Unfortunately, what’s not being said is that many of these women are probably using donor eggs. I would bet money on it.

Even their doctors give them very little knowledge. Their guidance often means telling them to wait for 1 year before worrying about it, then prescribing Clomid for a few cycles and when that fails, women are referred to fertility specialists who pitch $12,000-$15,000 IVF cycles. Many women are shortchanged in this process because they have no idea what can be done before medications and invasive fertility treatments become applicable. Unfortunately, we see this happen every day. It’s now become my mission to educate women about their fertility that they have the real facts amidst all the noise of the media, internet, doctors, and friends & family.

it’s often a matter of providing the right education and tools so that women can decide how they want their fertility journey to be. Women need to have more information in order to make informed decisions.

I just wish that I can get to women earlier, ideally in their 20s, so I can start the education process earlier. There’s so much they can do to prepare for conception that if they just did a few things earlier on, there wouldn’t be so much difficulty for so many women. I credit this knowledge to being able to have my 2 daughters easily. I only wish to share it with more women so they know for themselves what they can do for themselves.