Sarah sat in her car in the parking lot of her fertility clinic in Waltham and didn't turn the key. She'd just gotten the call. The second transfer hadn't worked. She and her husband had done everything right, followed every protocol to the letter, and her body still wasn't cooperating.
She was thirty-six, married five years, and had spent the last fourteen months of her life organized around injection schedules and blood draws.
What IVF Doesn't Show You
From the outside, Sarah's life looked normal. She still went to work at her marketing job in Lexington. She still showed up to her sister's birthday dinner. What people didn't see was the two-week wait after each transfer, when she analyzed every twinge in her body for meaning, or the quiet grief after each negative test that she didn't know how to explain to people who hadn't been through it.
She'd stopped telling most of her friends what stage of treatment she was in. It was easier than fielding questions she didn't have answers to. Her husband tried to be supportive, but there was a loneliness in it that he couldn't fully reach. She started dreading her own body, waiting for it to fail her again.
Her reproductive endocrinologist had mentioned that stress and blood flow could play a role in implantation, but there wasn't much offered beyond "try to relax," which felt almost insulting given the stakes.
Discovering AWC
A woman in Sarah's fertility support group, who lived in Bedford, mentioned she'd been seeing Dr. Min Jeon at Acupuncture & Wellness Clinic in Burlington alongside her IVF treatment. Another woman in the group, who drove in from Andover each month, said the same thing. Sarah was doubtful. She'd already spent so much money and hope on treatments that hadn't worked. Adding acupuncture felt like grasping.
She went anyway. At her first appointment, Dr. Min asked detailed questions about her cycle history, her stress levels, her sleep, and her transfer dates, questions her fertility clinic hadn't had time to ask in their fifteen-minute appointments. Dr. Min explained, in plain terms, that she'd focus on supporting blood flow to the uterus, balancing hormonal fluctuations, and calming Sarah's nervous system heading into her next transfer. She mentioned ATP Resonance BioTherapy®, a technique using gentle electrical frequencies, as one part of that support.
Sarah started coming in weekly, then twice weekly around her transfer window.
A Different Two-Week Wait
Her third transfer was scheduled for a Tuesday in March. This time, the two-week wait felt different. Not easier exactly, but she wasn't unraveling the way she had before. She slept better. Her stress, while still present, didn't consume every hour.
Ten days later, the blood test came back positive. At her six-week ultrasound in Burlington, there was a heartbeat.
Her reproductive endocrinologist noted her improved uterine lining measurements that cycle and asked what she'd changed. Sarah told her about the acupuncture. Her doctor didn't dismiss it, and continued to monitor her closely alongside her fertility treatment as the pregnancy progressed.
Sarah still sees her reproductive endocrinologist for every appointment. AWC didn't replace that care, it supported her through it. For the many women across Greater Boston walking this same path, from Woburn to Lexington to Bedford to Winchester and Wilmington, the physical and emotional toll of IVF is real, and so is the value of support along the way.
Call Acupuncture & Wellness Clinic at 781-221-0162.
Acupuncture & Wellness Clinic | Burlington, MA | Serving Greater Boston including Waltham, Lexington, Bedford, Woburn, Winchester, Wilmington, and Andover | Specializing in fertility support, women's health, and complex cases for over 25 years.