This article is part of the October 2006 INCIID Insights Newsletter

Overcoming Infertility and Blocked Fallopian Tubes

Written by Jacqueline Schuld as told by Theresa Tieszen

Infertility is a lonely road to walk down. My husband and I tried for eight years to have a child. Every time we received a friend’s birth announcement or invitation to a baby shower, we were painfully reminded of our own struggles and felt isolated from our friends’ joy.

When my husband and I suspected we had fertility problems, we decided to speak with a doctor. We had to skip around from doctor to doctor at first because we moved from Minnesota to New Hampshire. As a result, we were never able to spend much time with one doctor.  We felt they were quick to make decisions or never understood the whole picture of our medical history.

We finally settled with an endocrinologist in New Hampshire who suggested I have a hysterosalpingogram (HSG) to see if my fallopian tubers were blocked. I was very hesitant at first, but I finally decided to go through with the procedure. We didn’t expect anything to be wrong. Yet, the results showed that both of my tubes were blocked.

The endocrinologist suggested we proceed with laparoscopic surgery to attempt to open my tubes. If the surgery did not work, we could consider IVF or adoption.

I wasn’t comfortable with having surgery and IVF wasn’t an option for us because of personal and financial reasons, but adoption had always been in the back of our minds. We had even been accepted as parents at an adoption agency.

However, we still didn’t feel ready to make a decision. We were live-in caregivers for my grandparents at the time and under a lot of stress. We needed more time to think and pray about our options. We decided to put everything on hold for six months.

A few months later, my husband and I settled into the couch to watch the nightly news at 5pm – a time we seldom watched. A report about Clear Passage TherapiesÒ, a clinic that had success relieving pain and increasing chances of fertility, aired on the news. They reported that the treatment used manual (hands-on) therapy, without drugs or surgery.

My husband and I were both intrigued, so I asked him to watch the news again at 6pm – the time we normally watched the news. When the news report did not come on at 6pm, we knew it wasn’t a coincidence that we had sat down early to watch the news.

I sent my information to Clear Passage and was excited when they approved me for treatment. We made arrangements to stay with a family from a local church while I underwent ten hours of treatment within one week.

The first day of treatment I felt nervous and uneasy. However, my anxiety dissipated when I met my therapists. They were so warm, friendly, and natural with me that I felt comfortable and relaxed.

By the end of the week, my entire body felt healthier and I headed home to try and become pregnant. After six months, we still had no success. The therapists told me that most of their patients experienced success after 20 hours of treatment, so I decided to return for ten more hours.

I was excited for my second round of treatment. It was comforting to be back in the relaxing atmosphere with encouraging therapists. Following the treatment we waited another 6 months and then decided to have another HSG to see if my fallopian tubes had been opened.

My husband and I went to the hospital together for the procedure. We held hands as we actually watched the dye go through my tubes – both of my tubes were clear! Tears of joy ran down my face and we couldn’t wait to tell Clear Passage.

However, we still hadn’t become pregnant yet. Because my tubes were open, the endocrinologist suggested we try Clomid (a hormonal drug) with an intrauterine insemination (IUI). Although I was nervous about the entire process, my husband and I decided to try it.

A few weeks after my IUI, I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to take an early pregnancy test. It showed I was pregnant! I woke up my husband excited, “The test is positive! It’s positive!” Because it was only 3am, he groggily asked, “What test? You took what? What is it?” I finally calmed down enough to explain I was pregnant.

That afternoon we had a blood test that confirmed my pregnancy. We were overwhelmed with joy. After eight agonizing years of infertility, we were finally going to experience pregnancy and parenthood.

Now, our beautiful baby girl is almost a year old. We are so grateful that the Lord led us to Clear Passage TherapiesÒ and for the doctors who helped us overcome infertility.

For more detailed information about this therapy, the Wurn TechniqueÒ, please visit www.clearpassage.com. Clear Passage currently has clinics in Florida, New York, California, and Iowa, with plans to open in Arizona this summer and other metropolitan locations soon. 

Please feel free to post your questions on the INCIID forum, “Physical Therapy for Infertility and Pelvic Pain,” (http://inciid.org/forum). Belinda Wurn, PT, Director of Services, Clear Passage TherapiesÒ, and Larry Wurn, LMT, Director of Clinical Studies, Clear Passage TherapiesÒ, moderate the forum.

INCIID Insights is sponsored by Sher Institutes for Reproductive Medicine.