In 2004, a team from Soroka University in Israel found, in a study of 185 women given IVF treatment, 28% of the women in the group who were hypnotised, became pregnant, compared with 14% of those who were not.  The findings of this study was presented to the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Berlin that year.

The Israeli researchers were looking to see if hypnosis could make the embryo transfer stage of IVF more successful.  Their belief was that if the womb contracts during this stage, it can affect the chances of the transplant being a success.

Whilst there have been few studies to prove that hypnotherapy can improve the success rates of women going through IVF treatment, there can be no doubt that any treatment which helps reduce the massive stress levels encountered by couples going down this route is a positive thing.

Unless you have endured the pain of sub-fertility (I prefer to call it this, rather than infertility or even worse childlessness) you can have no idea of what these couples go  through.  The stress comes from all quarters, not just the sheer physical toll that IVF treatment can take on you.   The emotional factors are even more traumatic.  The main one is the feeling that you may never have a child of your own, and this can be described as a type of grieving, but in some ways far worse, as you can never move on.   Often, well-meaning people (usually those with children, conceived easily and naturally) will urge you to ‘accept the fact that you cannot have children’ and just move on with your life.   Having experienced sub-fertility and then IVF treatment myself, I can honestly say that this type of advice made me quite angry.  How dare these people presume to give you advice on something that they have no idea about? I was always very sure that it was my destiny to have a child, I just could not imagine my life without children and I very much feel that it was this belief that eventually led to us being blessed with our two wonderful boys.

And yet it is very hard to nurture a belief, that despite the odds being against you, you will one day hold that baby in your arms.  The medical profession often just relies on hard, cold facts, purely the physiological, and not the emotional or psychological factors that play a part.   And this is so important.   I am forever indebted to Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe, who pioneered IVF treatment – they were medical men, Edwards a Scientist and Steptoe a medical doctor – and, as a result of their wonderful work, Louise Brown, the first IVF baby was born, followed by many thousands of others.   Robert Edwards subsequently received a nobel prize in 2004 for his pioneering work, and not before time.

I strongly believe that, in addition to having the best medical treatment that you can afford, it is important to make sure that your state of mind is as relaxed as it can be, and this is where hypnotherapy along with other complementary therapy treatments such as acupuncture and reflexology, can help.  Medical professionals now accept that the mind-body connection is very important in achieving a good, healthy outcome for all sorts of interventions.

Hypnotherapy can be very powerful in removing subconscious blocks to having a baby (it may be that years ago you had an abortion, and perhaps you feel that this means you do not deserve another chance at parenthood or maybe you were abused as a child, and subconsciously this is stopping you from becoming pregnant).   I feel that, in working with couples in this situation, it is very important to work on removing any negativity, prior to then installing relaxation techniques, as well as creating very strong and detailed visualisations.   I then also prepare a CD for use during treatment, as I recognise that this time (particularly implantation, and then the 2 weeks following this) is most stressful.

If you would like to have a chat about how hypnotherapy can help you, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01449 780352, or 0781 7158429, or email me at wendy@wendychalk.co.uk.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Wendy x