Fertility Acupuncture Melbourne
Acupuncture for Fertility & IVF Support in West Footscray
Supporting you to build your family is the best part of our job, and helping you understand your body, your cycle and your hormones so you can feel confident in them is our greatest passion.
Whether you’ve just started thinking about trying, you’ve been trying for a while, or you’re mid-cycle with a fertility clinic, on your own, with a partner or with donor support, we’re here to work alongside you and your medical team.
Our practitioners have trained in the Fertile Life Method with Dr Kirsten Wolfe, an Australian Chinese medicine practitioner who developed a thorough, detective-style system for finding what might be getting in the way of your fertility. If you’ve been told your fertility is “unexplained”, that’s where our questions start, not where they stop.
We’ll look at your cycle, sleep, digestion, energy, stress and mood through a Chinese medicine lens and track how they change month to month. Then we bring in the tools that suit you, acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, supplements, diet and lifestyle changes, to support the parts of your health that may be influencing your fertility.
Our aim is that you leave every session understanding a little more about your body and what it’s telling you.
Who we see
Your fertility journey is unique, and so are the people we see at MACHI, you might be:
Just beginning: getting to know your monthly cycle and looking to support your overall health, sleep, stress and digestion ahead of trying. Or maybe you have a diagnosis of endometriosis or PMOS (previously known as PCOS) and want to support your fertility from many avenues.
Trying, not yet pregnant: maybe you’re looking for a complementary understanding of your health, some extra support, or answers around what your cycle is telling you.
Working with a fertility clinic: IVF, ICSI, IUI or medicated cycles, and you’re exploring care that fits around your protocol. We’re here to work alongside your specialist team.
Same-sex couples & solo parents by choice: donor sperm, reciprocal IVF, IUI or at-home insemination, you’re very welcome here, and we’ll work alongside whatever path you’re taking.
Supporting your sperm health: whether your semen analysis has shown a lower count, lower volume, or sperm that aren’t moving or shaped as they should be, we’d love to support you. We’ll help you understand what may be influencing your sperm health, from stress and sleep to heat and lifestyle, and give you tools to reduce oxidative stress, the cell damage that can affect sperm quality.
You don’t need a diagnosis, a referral, or a partner to book with us.
We’re a trauma-informed clinic. We ask before we do things, we explain as we go, and you stay in control of the treatment room.
How We Work With You
No two treatment plans look the same, but depending on where you’re at, yours may include:
Regular acupuncture to support your cycle and digestion, ease physical tension and settle the nervous system.
Individualised Chinese herbal medicine, adjusted as your cycle changes, with the option of granules, raw tea or tincture.
Cycle tracking support, so you can read your own cycle between appointments and get to know when you’re ovulating.
Diet & lifestyle advice based on traditional medicine principles, your individual pattern and practical nutrition for each phase of your cycle.
Blood test & supplement discussion, in the context of what your GP and specialist have already ordered.
Coordination with your team, we work alongside your protocol, never against it.
Timing around IVF milestones, including sessions near embryo transfer where that’s practical.
If you’re in an IVF cycle, bring your protocol and key dates to your first visit and we’ll help build a treatment plan around your appointments.
What to Expect
Your initial appointment runs for 60-75 minutes, giving us time for a detailed history, pulse and tongue diagnosis, an abdominal assessment and treatment, and setting out a clear plan together. Your first session will include acupuncture, unless you’d prefer to avoid needles, in which case we can work with massage, heat therapy and other hands-on tools.
If you have recent tests or scans, bring them along. You may also have a semen analysis or use cycle tracking, which is extremely helpful for our work as it lets us see the full picture, and if you haven’t started tracking yet, we’ll show you how.
Follow-up sessions run for 60 minutes and may include acupuncture alongside massage, cupping and heat therapy (moxibustion). We’ll also offer the option of Chinese herbal medicine, tailored to you and your cycle.
Partners are always welcome to come along. The clinic has both a treatment table and a floor futon, and we keep it quiet and toasty warm.
Why Choose Our Clinic
AHPRA-registered Chinese medicine practitioners and herbalists, trained at RMIT University.
Reproductive health is our focus: menses, preconception, fertility, pregnancy, postpartum and menopause, supporting you through every phase of life.
Trauma-informed: fertility treatment can ask a lot of you, it can feel invasive and leave your body feeling sensitive, so we go at your pace and aim to keep you as regulated as possible.
No assumptions: we’ll never assume who’s in your family or how you’re building it, we ask, and we see couples, solo parents and donor families regularly.
Collaborative: we’ll never ask you to choose between us and your medical treatment, and we’ll give you as much information as you need to share with your specialist or GP, so everyone’s on the same page.
Fertility Acupuncture FAQs
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Your first session runs 60–75 minutes, covering a full history, pulse and tongue diagnosis, abdominal assessment, acupuncture treatment plus a treatment plan. Follow-ups run 60 minutes, with needles usually retained for 20–30 minutes while you rest.
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Most people start with weekly sessions and plan in three-month blocks,because a follicle takes around three months to mature, and sperm take 72–90 days to develop. From there, we adjust based on how your body responds.
As a general guide, we start weekly for your first cycle. If you’re taking herbal medicine, we can often move to fortnightly sessions, as the herbs keep working between appointments. Without herbs, we’ll usually stay weekly.
Some people notice changes in sleep, stress or pain sooner, sometimes within a few sessions.
We review as we go. If something isn’t shifting, we’d rather change the plan or refer you on than keep booking you in.
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Yes, and most of the people we see are doing exactly that. We’d love to know what protocol you’re on, the medications you’re taking and your key dates, and we’ll build our sessions and any herbal prescription around them.
We’ll adjust or pause herbs where they might interact with your medication, or at the request of your specialist, and we’re happy to share as much information as your treating team needs so everyone’s on the same page.
We don’t make claims about IVF outcomes. Our role is to support you through it, your symptoms, your stress and your general health, alongside the care your specialist is providing.
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Yes, if your partner is providing the sperm, we’d love to see them. Male factor is a sole or contributing cause in up to half of fertility investigations, and a single semen analysis shows the numbers, but rarely what’s driving them.
Sperm are more sensitive to ordinary life than most people expect. Sleep, stress, heat, alcohol, weight and everyday environmental exposures can all add to oxidative stress, the cell damage that affects sperm quality, and none of that shows up on a standard test.
Why are stress levels important? A Danish study of 1,362 young men found those with the highest perceived stress scores had around 38% lower sperm concentration than those with the lowest, and notably, it was perceived stress that mattered, not whether they’d actually been through a stressful life event. It shows a link rather than proof that stress is the cause, but it’s one of the reasons we look at the whole person, not just the test results.
Sperm take 72–90 days to develop, so starting three months before a cycle is time well spent
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The honest answer is we don’t know yet, and current research doesn’t show that it does. There is one recent study people often ask us about, so here’s what it found.
A 2026 randomised sham-controlled trial reported that 12 weeks of acupuncture produced a greater increase in antral follicle count (the number of small follicles visible on an ultrasound) than sham acupuncture. The difference was around one follicle at 12 weeks. It didn’t measure pregnancy outcomes, it was run at a single centre, and the practitioners weren’t blinded.
It’s one small, early trial, so we’re sharing it because it’s interesting and worth watching, not because it shows acupuncture changes ovarian reserve.
If you have a diminished ovarian reserve diagnosis, your fertility specialist should guide your treatment decisions. Where we come in is alongside that care. In our sessions we take a whole body approach, with a deep dive into your overall health, sleep and stress, aiming to support the regularity of your cycle, your bleed and the timing of ovulation while you work through your options.
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Absolutely, we’d love to support you. Many of the people we see are using donor sperm, intrauterine insemination (IUI), reciprocal IVF or at-home insemination, and plenty of them don’t have a fertility condition at all, they just need a different path to get there.
Your care plan is built around what you’re actually doing, whether that’s helping with ovulation timing for home insemination, preparing for IUI, or supporting both partners through reciprocal IVF.
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No, you don’t need a referral or a diagnosis, you can book with us at any stage of your fertility journey
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Acupuncture is generally considered safe when performed by a registered practitioner, and most people feel a dull ache at most. Our practitioners are AHPRA registered and use sterile, single-use, ultra-fine needles, and we complete a full assessment with everyone, including current medications and treatment.
We practise a gentle style, although points near an area of pain can be a bit more sensitive. If you’re nervous, or feeling vulnerable or tender from your fertility treatment, let us know, we’ll start with fleshy areas and the finest needles we have.
If you’re in an IVF cycle or there’s any chance you’re already pregnant, tell us. It changes our point selection, and we’ll ask you at every visit.
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Yes, acupuncture with our AHPRA-registered practitioners can be claimed on the spot after your session through your private health extras. Coverage depends on your policy and available funds, so we recommend checking your level of cover and remaining limit with your insurer before your first session.
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Book online, call (03) 9111 9910, or email hello@machihealth.com.au. We're at Rear 638 Barkly Street, West Footscray.