IVF, ICSI & assisted conception · Stockton Heath
Between “everything looks normal”
and IVF, there is nothing.
Often there is no middle ground. A wait, and then one of the biggest steps in fertility treatment, without anyone having the time to explain why you needed it.That gap is where we work.
Acupuncture and bloodwork review in Stockton Heath. Before your cycle, during it, between rounds, or when you have simply had enough of not understanding what is happening.
Mid cycle right now? Book a free 15 minute call and we’ll work around your clinic.
Before any of the practical bits
Nobody ever answered the question.
You might be reading this holding a folder. Dates, doses, a protocol printed in tiny font. You have injected yourself in a toilet at work and then walked back into a meeting. More people have looked inside you this year than in your entire life before it. You have learned a language you never asked to learn. Follicle counts. Grades. Day 3, day 5. You have refreshed a portal at 6am.
Or you might be reading this because somebody said the letters IVF out loud for the first time last week and you have not stopped thinking about it since. Nothing has started. Nothing has been decided. There is just a referral sitting in your inbox and a feeling in your stomach.
Wherever you are on that, there is one question underneath all of it that has not been answered yet. Why isn’t this working?
How you ended up here, and the one thing we won’t say about IVF
Or you are somewhere in the middle. 2 years of trying. Nothing wrong on paper. A wait, and then another wait, and a growing suspicion that the plan is simply to skip to the end.
Because that is how it tends to go. You went to your GP. You waited. Some bloods came back normal. You waited again. And then, without anyone ever finding out what was actually going on, you were handed the largest, most invasive, most expensive intervention in reproductive medicine and told this was your answer.
Maybe it worked. Maybe it didn’t. Maybe it didn’t 3 times, and each time somebody said we don’t really know why, and each time it cost you the price of a car and a piece of yourself you are not certain you get back.
And here is the thing we are not going to say. We are not going to tell you IVF is wrong. It is extraordinary. For a great many people it is exactly the right answer, and if you are mid cycle as you read this we will work around your clinic and never say a word against them.
But before you go through that door, it is worth someone spending an hour finding out why the door was needed.
What you’ve been told
Sentences you could recite in your sleep.
“Everything’s come back normal.” “It’s unexplained.” “Your best option now is IVF.” “We don’t know why it didn’t work.” “You’re 38, we’d want to move quickly.” “Try another round.” “At least you got embryos.”
IVF was never designed to answer the question. It was designed to go around it.
That is not a criticism. It is the entire genius of it. IVF does not need to know why you are not conceiving in order to help you conceive, and when time is short, that is a gift. But it does mean that if it is never looked into, it never will be, and unexplained just becomes a permanent condition instead of a to do list.
The gap
There are 2 doors. There should be 3.
Look at how the path is actually built. You go to your GP because something is wrong. And then the next thing available to you is the most invasive treatment in medicine. There is nothing in between. No stage where anyone sits down and works out what is happening in your particular body, in enough detail to change anything.
Door 1
Your GP
A few standard bloods. A wait. Everything comes back normal. Come back in 6 months. Maybe lose a bit of weight.
Door 2
Nothing.
No investigation. No explanation. No plan. Just the waiting list, and the years going past.
Door 3
IVF
Injections. Scans. Egg collection. Thousands of pounds and a great deal of your body, with the question still unanswered underneath it.
Door 2 is meant to be where somebody looks. It is not that it failed you. It is that it was never built.
So that is what we are. Not instead of your clinic. Not against IVF. The bit in the middle that should have been there before anyone booked you in for egg collection, and that is still worth having if you are already on your way.
2 ways to start
How we can help with IVF.
Pick the one that fits where you are now. They work well together: the bloods show us where to focus, and acupuncture is the support week to week.
Best place to start
Fertility acupuncture
Regular support, every step
Sessions timed around your stimulation, egg collection and transfer, with a practitioner who works around your clinic’s dates. Your partner can add ear acupuncture for £10.
- First appointment, 75 min£75
- Follow ups, 60 min£59
Bloodwork review
A proper look at your bloods
Useful before a round or between rounds, to look at the body systems that may be affecting how you respond.
- Fertility Brew & Review, 60 min£140
- Both on Board, couples, 75 min£185
Not sure which is right for you? Book a free 15 minute call and we will point you the right way.
Who you’d see
Who’s actually in the room.
Our acupuncture team
7 registered practitioners
You will see 1 of our 7 practitioners, and then you will see her again. 40 years between us, all of it in this room, none of us willing to call something normal just because it is common.
Gaynor Almond
Fertility specialist · bloodwork & emotional support
Gaynor runs our Fertility Brew & Review, Both on Board and Menopause Review & Renew, reading your bloods against optimal ranges and piecing your results, cycle and history into one picture. She also offers emotional support, a gentle hybrid of talking therapy and hypnotherapy.
Georgia Briscall
Functional nutritionist
Georgia does the nutrition side, for women and men, trying naturally or through IVF. She works with the picture underneath as well as the one on top: autoimmune conditions, insulin resistance, diabetes, chronic inflammation. Your own biochemistry and your own life, not a template.
In their words
From people who sat where you are.
★★★★★
“Andrea at Juniper supported me throughout my IVF treatment with fertility acupuncture once a week and then over egg collection and transfer… Andrea is so knowledgeable in small changes you can make to support your fertility outside of treatment.”
Abbie Moorcroft · Google review
★★★★★
“Since my first appointment in September 2023 with the lovely Kate I was still grieving from our two failed rounds of IVF. I was trying so hard to convince myself I was ‘ok’ but looking back now I definitely wasn’t ok and that’s ok.”
Jennie Crombleholme · Google review
★★★★★
“So far my experience at Juniper has been fantastic. Katrina is super knowledgeable, friendly, warm and I feel in really safe expert hands.”
Claire Parker · Google review
Taken from our Google reviews. 5.0 from 112 reviews.
Good to know
Questions people ask
Yes, and plenty of people do. We work around your clinic and your dates, not the other way round. Tell us at booking where you are in your protocol. If your dates move, and they nearly always move, tell us and we will move. Always let your clinic know you are having acupuncture, and if they would rather you did not have it at a particular point, we follow their lead.
About 3 months before your cycle, if you have that. An egg takes roughly 90 to 120 days to develop and sperm take roughly 70 to 90 days to be made, so the egg collected in your next cycle started forming long before your protocol did. That window is the ideal. If you have not got it, come anyway. It is not an entry requirement and there is no point at which support stops being worth having.
People ask us this more than anything else. Some clinics are happy with it, some would rather you did not, and some have a view about travelling straight afterwards. Ask your clinic first and we will fit around whatever they say. What we will not do is quote you a number or promise you what it will do, because that cannot be promised.
Yes, and it is 1 of the times people most want it, because it is the stretch where nothing is happening to you and there is nothing to do but think. Your practitioner will know exactly where you are and treat accordingly. Tell your clinic you are coming.
Acupuncture is generally very safe when it is done by a qualified practitioner. Tell us what you are taking and what stage you are at, tell your clinic you are having it, and if they raise anything at all we work to their instruction. If you are on blood thinning medication or have a bleeding disorder, tell your practitioner before your first appointment.
It changes the shape of your calendar rather than the shape of what we do. A frozen transfer usually gives us a calmer run at things and a bit more notice. A fresh cycle moves faster and moves more. Either way we plan around your clinic dates. Just tell us which one you are on.
Let somebody look before you do it again.
Start wherever feels manageable. If you are mid cycle, or you have no idea what you need, start with the call. It is 15 minutes and it costs nothing.
Book acupuncture£75 first appt, 75 min · then £59, 60 min Book functional nutritionwith Georgia · from £75 · 1 hour Fertility Brew & Reviewindividuals · £140 · 60 min Both on Boardcouples · £185 · 75 min Free 15 minute callno pressure, no jargon
Or call us on 01925 612 208 · 30a London Road, Stockton Heath, Warrington WA4 6HN