What Are the Best Holistic Approaches for Unexplained Infertility?

If you have been told your infertility is "unexplained," you may be carrying a very particular kind of tiredness. Every test came back normal. Everyone keeps telling you it will happen. And still, each month arrives with the same quiet ache. You are not imagining the weight of that. And you are not broken. An "unexplained" diagnosis does not mean untreatable. More often it means the standard tests looked through a narrow lens, and that a wider, whole-body view still has a great deal to offer.

A holistic approach treats your body as one interconnected system, supporting your overall health so your reproductive health has the best conditions to work within. No approach can promise a pregnancy, and we will always be honest with you about that. But the right foundations can help you feel steadier, calmer, and more like yourself again while you find your way forward.

I am Deanna Thomas, an acupuncturist and fertility support practitioner here in Middlesbrough. In clinic, I meet people from right across Teesside who arrive feeling dismissed and quietly frightened, and who simply want to be treated as a whole person rather than a set of results. This is written for them. And for you.

What Is Unexplained Infertility?

Let us take some of the fear out of that word.

In the UK, around 1 in 7 couples may have difficulty conceiving, which is roughly 3.5 million people, according to the NHS. In about a quarter of cases, tests cannot identify a clear cause. That is what "unexplained" means. Not that nothing is happening in your body, and not that nothing can be done. Simply that the usual investigations, checks of ovulation, hormone levels, ovarian reserve, the reproductive organs including the fallopian tubes, and sperm, have not landed on one obvious answer.

Sometimes there are subtle factors that standard testing does not fully capture, and occasionally an "unexplained" picture later resolves into something more specific, such as mild endometriosis, a hormonal imbalance, or subtler timing issues such as luteal phase defects, where the second half of the cycle runs short. Many factors shape fertility, from age to lifestyle to other factors that interact in ways not always visible on a results sheet. It is one reason so many infertile couples find the label frustrating: it names an absence, not an answer.

It helps to hold two truths at once. First, "unexplained" can feel maddening, because it gives you nothing to aim at. Second, it is often more hopeful than people realise. The NHS notes that more than 8 in 10 couples, where the woman is under 40, will conceive naturally within a year of regular unprotected sex. For those still trying after longer, the picture is understandably harder, and that is exactly where whole-person support can make the journey feel less lonely.

Complementary and Alternative Therapies vs Proven Fertility Treatment

It helps to be clear about where complementary or alternative therapies sit, because the two are often confused.

Proven fertility treatments belong to reproductive medicine, and are aimed squarely at addressing infertility where a clear cause is found. Assisted conception, including intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilisation (IVF), is delivered by fertility specialists and regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). IVF treatment often begins with medication to encourage the ovaries to produce more eggs; an egg is then fertilised in a laboratory, and the resulting fertilised egg is placed into the womb in a step called embryo transfer. Where there are structural issues, such as blocked fallopian tubes or scar tissue, this kind of medical intervention is what addresses them, whether the difficulty relates to female infertility, male factors, or both. Complementary or alternative therapies do not replace any of that. What they offer is something different and still valuable: support for how you feel and function as a whole person while you pursue the goal of getting pregnant, through nutrition, movement, rest, and calming care. The safest holistic care always works with your medical team, not around it.

Nutrition, Supplements and Lifestyle

Nutrition is one of the most evidence-supported foundations of preconception health, for both partners. Nutrient optimisation supports hormonal regulation and overall reproductive health, and the good news is that it starts with everyday food, not perfection.

A diet rich in colourful vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and good-quality protein, often described as a Mediterranean-style pattern, gives your body the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants it thrives on. A few simple principles go a long way:

• Fill up on antioxidants and healthy fats. Plenty of colourful fruit and veg, nuts, seeds, olive oil, and oily fish for omega-3s all support overall reproductive wellbeing.
• Lean towards whole, and away from ultra-processed. Reducing heavily processed foods lets a varied, nutrient-dense diet do its work.
• Eat warm and nourishing. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, we often gently steer people towards cooked, warming meals, soups, and slow-cooked broths, especially through the cooler Teesside months.

A few well-established supplements are worth building in:

• Folic acid. The NHS advises 400 micrograms daily while trying to conceive and through the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, to help protect a baby's early development. Some people need a higher prescription-only dose, so ask your GP if you are unsure.
• Vitamin D. The NHS recommends a daily 10 microgram supplement, particularly between October and March when sunlight in the North East is scarce.
• Keep it safe. Avoid supplements containing vitamin A (retinol) when trying to conceive, and check labels.

Lifestyle matters alongside the plate. Quality sleep is when your body regulates hormones and restores, so a consistent bedtime, dimmer evening light, and screens away before bed all help. Moderate, gentle movement, walking, swimming, yoga, supports circulation, mood, and metabolic health without depleting you. Supporting a healthy body weight and reducing exposure to everyday environmental toxins where you can, such as heating food in plastic, are gentle acts of care too. And reducing or stopping smoking is one of the most meaningful things either partner can do, for fertility and for health more widely. If food, weight, or exercise ever feels loaded or difficult for you, please be gentle with yourself and lean on your GP or doctor for personalised support rather than anything rigid.

Herbal Remedies and Natural Approaches

Alongside food and lifestyle, some people explore herbal remedies, herbal medicine, or other natural remedies as part of their preconception routine, as well as supplements such as CoQ10, antioxidants, or herbs like Vitex (agnus castus) and Ashwagandha, which are often discussed in the context of hormone balance and stress.

Here I would ask you to be careful and well-informed. The evidence for many of these varies a great deal, and "natural" does not always mean "safe alongside everything else." Some herbal remedies can interact with fertility medication or affect your cycle, so they should only ever be used with the guidance of a suitably qualified medical herbalist, and always with your GP and fertility clinic kept in the picture. If you are having IVF or other treatment, tell your specialist about anything you are taking. Good holistic care is careful care.

Looking After Your Mental Health Through the Fertility Journey

Here is where we want to be very clear. We will never tell you to "just relax and it will happen." That phrase has hurt enough people already.

The emotional load of unexplained infertility is real, and it deserves proper care in its own right. The NHS itself acknowledges that infertility can be stressful and place a strain on relationships. There is a specific grief to the monthly cycle of hope, and to the long, quiet days of a two-week wait, when you are watching your own body for signs and trying not to hope too hard. If that has worn you down, nothing is wrong with you. It is a lot to carry.

Looking after your mental health is not about forcing calm, and it is certainly not about blaming stress for your situation. It is about giving your body and mind moments of genuine safety in a season that feels anything but safe. Mind-body practices such as gentle yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises can help relieve stress and steady you day to day, as can time outdoors, boundaries around who you share your journey with, talking therapies, and unhurried, supportive treatments. When the body feels safe, everything softens a little.

Acupuncture: Heritage, Integration and Evidence

Of all the holistic therapies people ask me about, acupuncture is the one I am asked about most here in Middlesbrough, and it sits differently from most.

It is one of the oldest and most established forms of medicine in the world, practised for thousands of years. Across much of East Asia, including China, Japan, and South Korea, it is not treated as "alternative" at all. It is practised within hospitals and integrated alongside conventional Western medicine as part of everyday care. Many of the gentler holistic therapies offered in the West, including much acupressure-based bodywork, trace their roots to the same tradition. In that sense acupuncture is less a fringe therapy and more the root discipline that a good deal of holistic care grows from.

It also has a larger and faster-growing research base than most complementary therapies. Several recent reviews have pooled dozens of trials involving thousands of women having IVF. A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis in Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics combined 25 trials and around 4,700 women; when the two groups were compared, it reported higher clinical pregnancy rates and live-birth rates in the acupuncture group than in the control group. A larger 2023 meta analysis in the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine pooled 58 trials and almost 11,000 women and likewise found higher pregnancy success rates in the acupuncture groups, while grading the overall quality of the evidence as low. An earlier 2019 review in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine found the clearest signal among women who had already been through one or more unsuccessful IVF cycles. And a widely cited study in Reproductive BioMedicine Online reported that women receiving whole-systems Chinese medicine, which combines acupuncture with dietary and lifestyle support, alongside IVF had higher live-birth rates than those having IVF alone.

I want to be clear that a study is never the reason anyone should come to see me. Most people come simply to feel supported and steadier through a hard time. It just helps to know that the therapy they find so calming is also being taken seriously in research.

As for how it might work, the British Acupuncture Council points to several observed effects. Acupuncture appears to influence the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the system the body uses to regulate hormones and the physiological stress response, and to shift the nervous system towards its calmer, parasympathetic state associated with rest and repair. Researchers have also explored whether it may influence blood flow. These are proposed mechanisms rather than proof, but they help explain why so many people find treatment both calming and steadying.

Findings do vary from one study to the next, the researchers themselves consistently call for larger and higher-quality trials, and none of this is a promise of a pregnancy. But taken together it is an encouraging and developing picture, and it places acupuncture among the more thoroughly investigated complementary therapies rather than at the fringes.

What I offer in clinic is that research-aware perspective wrapped in truly gentle care: a calm, warm space, and a whole-person approach rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine that focuses on balance, warmth, and flow. Most patients I see value it as much for how supported and steadied they feel as for anything else.

Choosing a regulated healthcare professional

If you do explore acupuncture, choose a properly regulated healthcare professional. As a member of the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC), the leading national acupuncture organisation in the UK, and registered with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), I hold to recognised standards of training, safety, and ethics. That is your reassurance that an acupuncture practitioner has been trained to a high, accountable standard, and that you are always in careful hands.

What a First Fertility Session Actually Looks Like

If you have never had acupuncture, it is normal to feel unsure about what to expect, and that uncertainty puts a lot of people off before they start. So here is the honest picture.

A first fertility appointment is unhurried and conversational. We spend proper time understanding your whole history, your cycle, your general health, your sleep, your stress, and how this journey has been for you, not just the fertility issues on paper. Alongside traditional pulse and tongue diagnosis, we use AcuGraph energy channel scanning to build a clear picture of where your body may be out of balance. The acupuncture itself is gentle. The needles are very fine, most people feel little more than a small sensation, and many drift into the most relaxed state they have reached in weeks. There is no pressure to commit to anything, and no judgement about where you are. It is simply a calm, warm space that is entirely about you.

Fertility Is a Shared Journey

Fertility is rarely a one-person story, yet so often the whole weight lands on one set of shoulders.

Both partners contribute to the picture, and both benefit from care and attention. Around a third to a half of fertility difficulties involve a male factor, so sperm quality really matters, and it is not fixed. Because sperm take around three months to develop, the same 90-day window that shapes egg health applies to sperm too. That gives real, practical scope: nutrition rich in antioxidants, better sleep, reduced alcohol and smoking, keeping laptops and heat away from the lap, and managing stress can all support healthier sperm parameters over a cycle of development. Research has also explored acupuncture in relation to sperm quality, though findings there are mixed and still developing. If the male side is where your questions sit, our acupuncture support for male fertility goes into far more detail.

This shared approach is close to our heart. We are one of the only clinics in the North East that includes both partners in fertility care, because it changes everything when you stop carrying this alone. If nothing else, it says: this is ours, not yours.

Working With Your Fertility Specialist and GP

Holistic care sits alongside conventional medicine, never in competition with it. We work with your medical team.

If you have been trying to conceive for a year, or six months if you are over 35, it is worth speaking to your GP. They can check for common causes and, where appropriate, refer you to a fertility specialist for further tests or medical intervention. If you are already going through investigations, assisted conception, or IVF, gentle holistic support can still have a place beside that care, and our fertility acupuncture clinic in Middlesbrough is happy to work in step with your medical team. The two are not either-or.

You do not have to choose between science and softness. You deserve both.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

An "unexplained" diagnosis can feel like being handed a locked door with no key. But your body is not failing you, and you are not doing this wrong. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is stop searching for the one thing to solve, and instead care for the whole of you: your food, your sleep, your mind, your relationship, and your sense of being supported.

That is the heart of holistic fertility care. Not pressure. Not promises. Just steady, compassionate support for your whole self, offered at whatever pace feels right.

Wellness grows where energy flows

If this resonates, you are warmly welcome to see how we support fertility here in Middlesbrough, in your own time and with no pressure at all. You do not have to navigate this alone.

This article is for general information and wellbeing support. It is not medical advice and does not diagnose or treat any condition. Please speak to your GP or fertility specialist about your individual circumstances.

© Deanna Thomas – Acupuncture & Wellbeing | BAcC Member | CNHC Registered | Fertility Support Trained
The House, 283 Acklam Road, Middlesbrough, TS5 7BP | 0800 593 2023