Fertility acupuncture home page

Dr. Lee has been diagnosed with advanced liver cancer in July 2019, as such, his office is temporarily closed.

Update: Thank you very much to the patients who have sent their wishes and prayers to Dr. Lee. He is very grateful for them and they have carried him through this difficult time. Dr. Lee has been doing his best to fight his cancer the last few months with a combination of Eastern and Western medicine in the hopes that he would be able to return to work by Jan 2020.  Unfortunately, due to the worsening of his condition, his oncologist does not believe Dr. Lee is able to work in the near future. We really apologize to our patients–Dr. Lee is very sadden that he cannot return to work to care for his patients.

We thank you for your understanding and thank those again who have sent kind wishes and prayers during this difficult time.  In case he is unable to return, his two daughters, Patricia and Victoria, will carry on his legacy in a few years.  Thank you.

Please email any questions to assistant@acupuncturebydrlee.com 

Fertility acupuncture success.

Total pregnancies for the most recent 18 years: 2964.

For the of year 2015, Dr. Lee achieved 243 pregnancies .   139 of them got pregnant naturally by just getting treatment from Dr. Lee.

For 2016, as of 12-31-2016,  234 pregnancies achieved.  121 women conceived naturally by just getting  treatments from Dr. Lee.

For 2017, as of 12-31-2017,  247 pregnancies achieved.  143 women conceived naturally by just getting  treatments from Dr. Lee.

For 2018, as of 12-31-2018,  278 pregnancies achieved.  145 women conceived naturally by just getting treatments from Dr. Lee.

For 2019, as of 06-30-2019, 116 pregnancies achieved.  56 women conceived naturally by just getting treatments from Dr. Lee.

The following is the pregnancy rate for years 2005 to 2018. Among those who were pregnant, over 50% of them achieved naturally by getting acupuncture and herbs from Dr. Lee.

2005 = 65%,       2006 = 63%,        2007 = 66%,        2008 = 69%,         2009 = 65%,      2010 = 65%, 

 2011 = 65%,        2012 = 64%,        2013 = 67%,        2014 = 67%,        2015= 68%,      2016=66%

2017=74%            2018=76%

2015 Outstanding Cases: 

(Note: The following are cases showing what are possible. They do not imply the same that will happen to every patient with similar situation. )

A healthy baby girl whose mother conceived her naturally at age 43 with treatment of acupuncture and herbs.

A healthy baby girl whose mother conceived her naturally at age 43 with treatment of acupuncture and herbs.

–Two of 43 y.o. females conceived naturally with only acupuncture and herbs from Dr. Lee in 2014 and gave birth this year. One Boy. One girl.

–A 37 y.o. female was diagnosed with bilateral tubal blockage in 2011.  She tried and failed 3 IVF cycles prior to seeing Dr. Lee in June 2014.  After two months of treatments, her right tube was opened.  In Feb 2015, her left tube was also opened.  She conceived naturally on 2-27-2015.

–A 32 y.o. female tried and failed to conceive for 18 months  including 2 natural IVFs and 1 mini IVF prior to seeing Dr. Lee.   She came for evaluation started getting acupuncture and herbal treatments to correct her body’s imbalance from Dr. Lee since mid 12/2015.  They could not try naturally or do IUI in the past due to her husband’s low sperm count, low sperm motility and low sperm morphology.  Since a healthy embryo comes from combining both a health egg and a healthy sperm. Her husband also decided to get evaluated by Dr. Lee to improve his sperm which will benefit future IVF or may be to a point for natural try.  This process often take 3 to 6 months.  Both of them came to get acupuncture treatment weekly and take herbs and keeping the diet that was tailored to each of them. In March 2015, she was happily found out that she was pregnant naturally.  Her husband’s sperm count increased from the pre-treatment of 7M/ejaculation to 174 M/ejaculation 3 month after treatment.  Sperm motility increase from 25% to 39%.

–A 35 y.o. female tried to conceive for 7 years. She had seen a herbalist in Taiwan and an acupuncturist in Southern Ca with no result.  She also tried and failed 3 cycles of IUI.  She started seeing Dr. Lee  who found the imbalance and used acupuncture and herbs to correct the imbalance.  3 months later, she conceived naturally for the fist time in the past 7 years.

(See below for the Outstanding Cases in other years.)

This site is to introduce acupuncture & herbal treatment to patients who have infertility. It gives an overview about how Dr. Lee has been able to convert infertility to fertility. It also provides links on informative articles he wrote about fertility such as Egg Quality, High FSH, Low AMH, Endometriosis, Recurrent Miscarriages and Unexplained infertility.  It also has a list of other non-fertility conditions such as pains and stress, allergies, etc. Dr. Lee has been successfully treating infertility with acupuncture alone as well as in conjunction with IUI and IVF in Irvine. He has been practicing acupuncture since 1989, started to specialize in treating infertility since year 2000, and has treated over 6300 infertility patients in the past 19 years, achieving a pregnancy rate of  63% to 76% (see list above).  A large number of his patients have previous failed IUI and IVF cycles with histories of miscarriage, endometriosis, poor eggs quality, high FSH and unexplained infertility. It is Dr. Lee’s hope to use this website to help patients understand some common causes of  infertility and highlight the importance of getting oneself optimized first, prior to attempting the awesome and complicated task of achieving and maintaining a pregnancy.   He moved to a newer office in Irvine in 2007 and is already running out of wall space for baby pictures.

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Fertility Success with Dr. Lee with acupuncture and herbal treatments. 8 feet by 4 feet frame on the left wall filled with baby photos.

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Fertility Success with Dr. Lee with acupuncture and herbal treatments. 8 feet by 4 feet frame on the right wall filled with baby photos.

Fertility Success with Dr. Lee with acupuncture and herbal treatments. front of reception wall filled with baby photos.

Fertility Success with Dr. Lee with acupuncture and herbal treatments. Front of reception wall filled with baby photos.

Fertility Success with Dr. Lee with acupuncture and herbal treatments. Right side of reception wall filled with baby photos.

Fertility Success with Dr. Lee with acupuncture and herbal treatments. Right hallway wall filled with baby photos.

Dr. Lee’s 3 pillars for success: Correct diagnosis, Effective treatments, Time & patience. If you are short on time to read all of the following pages, just remember the 3 pillars.  Dr. Lee will give the first two, you need give yourself the 3rd. Haste makes waste. The success of achieving your family building dream sits on this tripod with all three legs intact.

Correct Diagnosis: This is essential and often a misunderstood part. Infertility is only a symptom of not being able to conceive, not a root cause, which is what Dr. Lee looks for. This root cause is often a subtle imbalance that exists in a patient and has developed over time.  It often does not show up on routine blood tests and ultrasounds. In a patient’s initial visit, Dr. Lee will look for any imbalances through pulse and tongue diagnosis, analysis of the acupuncture meridians that are related to the fertility.  He will also go through patients’ menstrual characteristics, basal temperature charts, lifestyle and diet: all of which are closely related to the body’s balance and thus fertility. He will discuss and explain his findings and come up with a clear diagnosis and explain how those imbalance affect patient’s fertility. This is the foundation on which all the subsequent acupuncture treatments are based on. Without which, acupuncture is less effective or not effective at all.  Dr. Lee’s years of clinical experience have shown him that behind each failure, there is an imbalance and behind each success, there is a correction of an imbalance.  The first step to achieve success is to discover that imbalance and understand its cause.

Effective Treatments: Once an imbalance is found, treatment is focused on correcting that imbalance.  Again, Dr. Lee applies his proven techniques and clinical expertise of acupuncture and herbs combining his recommendations for patients on modifying their lifestyle and diet to achieve the goal of correcting that imbalance.  For treatment to be effective, it needs to produce a measurable result which Dr. Lee will check on a weekly basis and modify his treatment accordingly in order to achieve the ultimate goal of term pregnancy.

Time & patience: Dr. Lee’s goal is to help patients to conceive asap.  His years of experience have shown that the quickest way to achieve that goal is to get one’s body normalized first. This often takes 1 to 3 menstrual cycles to achieve, depending on the amount of imbalance. Once that balance is achieved, a new follicle, with an egg inside, will start to grow under this optimized condition and mature 85 days, or 3 months later.  This 3-month time frame of follicle maturation is a physiological process beyond human interventions.  That is why most patients achieve their success in 4 to 8 months.  Of course, one can always pull out eggs and transfer them back to the uterus without going through the normalization process and some of them do become successful.  But, for those 60% of patients who failed IVFs multiple times, such normalization process becomes essential for a better outcome. Haste often makes waste.  Having a child is much like making a copy of oneself and one’s spouse.  Once the copy is made, we have no chance to make any corrections for the next 80 to 90 years.   Much like submitting a book for publications, we don’t send our rough draft.  We read, read, and read.  We correct, correct, and correct.  Only then, will we submit the final and finely polished version to publish.  When a couple takes a wedding photo, they take time to do their hair and make-up to give the best image possible.  There are patients who come to see Dr. Lee 6 months before their weddings for treating facial acne.  One should do the same, if not more, to prepare for the best eggs and sperms.   An embryo can be made from the following 4 ways: good egg with good sperm, good egg with poor sperm, poor egg with good sperm, poor egg with poor sperm.  The choice is clear which combination you should choose for your embryo. In addition to having a good egg and a good sperm, the embryo also needs a friendly and supportive uterine environment to grow in.  That takes time to correct also.  see recurrent miscarriage for details. May your dream begin right here in Irvine with the help from Dr. Lee.

Dr. Lee achieved a record number of pregnancies in 2013: he achieved 194 pregnancies out of 290 patients, or 67%.  93 of the 194 pregnancies, 47%, were achieved by receiving acupuncture and herbs from Dr. Lee without IUI or IVF.  Here is a list of some of the outstanding cases and successes that he reached in previous years.

2014 Outstanding Cases:

A 39 y.o, failed 7 IVFs and conceived naturally after seeing Dr. Lee for 4 months.

Twins from a 42 woman who failed IVF.  Then saw Dr. Lee to correct her imbalance for 4 months.  Conceived from her first IUI.

Twins from a 42 woman who failed IVF. Then saw Dr. Lee to correct her imbalance for 4 months. Conceived from her first IUI.

A 42 y.o. female tried to conceive for 2 years with one failed IVF prior to seeing  Dr. Lee.  After four months of acupuncture and herbs to correct her imbalance, patient was pregnant with twins from her first IUI.

A 31 year-old male had been trying to conceive naturally with his wife for 9 months with no success.  He had his semen tested in Dec. 2013 which showed low count of 8.4 million (normal => 40 million), low motility of 4.6 million (normal = > 20 million) and low morphology of 0.32 million (normal = > 5.6 million strict).  He came to see Dr. Lee in Jan. 3, 2014 and after finding out his imbalance, he received acupuncture and herbal treatments for 4 months.  A new semen analysis was done on 5-5-2014 and showed drastic improvements.  His sperm count went up to 77 million (9x more), motile sperm went up to 27 million (6x more) and normal morphology went up to 1.54 million (5X more).  The best news came in the same month when his wife, who also had been getting treatment from Dr. Lee, reported that she was pregnant naturally on 5-17-14.  She finished her weekly treatment to prevent miscarriage and was discharged on 7-9-14 at week 12.

A 36 year-old male failed to conceive naturally with his wife.  He had his semen tested in Oct. 2013 which showed low count of 18 million (normal => 40 million), low motility of 7 million (normal = > 20 million) and low morphology of 5.9 million (normal = > 12 million non-strict),  tested again in Dec. 2013 which showed low count of 4.5 million (normal => 40 million), low motility of 0.0 million (normal = > 20 million) and low morphology of 0.0 million (normal = > 12 million non-strict), tested again in Jan. 2014 which showed low count of 34 million (normal => 40 million), low motility of 1 million (normal = > 20 million) and low morphology of 5.1 million (normal = > 12 million non-strict).  This patient did not have any forward-moving sperm. His RE referred him to a urologist who said he could not help him.  He came to see Dr. Lee in Feb. 6, 2014.  After finding out his imbalance, he received acupuncture and herbal treatment for 5 months.  A new semen analysis was done on 7-22-2014 showing drastic improvments over his Jan’s result 5 months prior.  His sperm count went up to 202 million (6X more), motile sperm went up to 65 million (65x more) and normal morphology went up to 55 million (10X more).  His sperm are fertile enough now.  His wife is also getting treatment from Dr. Lee. Their success should be coming soon.

2013 Outstanding Cases: A 31 y.o. has been trying for the past 12 years with 2 IUIs and  2 IVFs without success.  After seeing Dr. Lee, she conceived naturally.  Another 31 y.o. had a 180-day cycle; Dr. Lee was also able to help her conceive naturally.  A different patient, with Dr. Lee’s help, had her AMH increase from 0.2 to 1.2 in 4 months of treatment.  Finally, a 43 y.o. with FSH 43 and low AMH<0.16 achieved natural pregnancy after seeing Dr. Lee.

2012 Outstanding Cases:   A 35 year-old infertility patient with high FSH of 23 and low AMH <0.16 got pregnant with acupuncture and herbal treatment from Dr. Lee.

2011 Outstanding Cases:  A new all time high record of 186 pregnancies achieved in 2011. 70 of which are achieved with just getting acupuncture and herbs from Dr. Lee without IUI or IVF.

2010 Outstanding Cases:  A 39 y.o. began to see Dr. Lee after failing 10 IVFs.  Yes. Ten IVFs.  She saw 2 other acupuncturists without success due to lack of focus on the underlying cause.  After seeing Dr. Lee for acupuncture and herbs for 3 months, she got pregnant with twins from another IVF and delivered the twins in Sept. 2010.

2009 Outstanding Cases:  A 44 y.o got pregnant naturally with acupuncture with herbs.  A 36 y.o. with history of 6 IVF failures got pregnant naturally after seeing Dr. Lee for 4 and 1/2 months.  A new record of 125 pregnancies for year 2009.

2008 Outstanding Cases:  New record of pregnancy rate of 69%. Total of 123 patients got pregnant.  A patient, age 41, with endometriosis and high FSH of 23 got pregnant with twins using her own eggs with combination of acupuncture herbs and IVF.

2007 Outstanding Cases:  A 35 year old woman with only one fallopian tube and only one follicle developing on the opposite ovary (confirmed with ultrasound by her RE) got pregnant naturally.

2006 Outstanding Cases:  #1 A 41 year-old infertility patient from LA County who failed one IVF cycle prior to seeing Dr. Lee on 4/30/05.  She had 2 laparoscopies to remove endometriosis and chocolate cysts ranging 4 to 5 cm in size.  Her FSH was at 30. Her tubes were 100% blocked in one and partially blocked in the other.  She got pregnant naturally after only 9 acupuncture treatments with Chinese herbs for her specific condition.  But she miscarried on 8/25/05.  She went to RE to start IVF but was told that due do her high FSH, she was not a good candidate for IVF.  She decided to continue Dr. Lee’s the acupuncture and Chinese herbal treatments. Her year-long persistence paid off. Her FSH dropped down to 19.3 on 8/28/06.  She got pregnant naturally again on 10/17/06 with strong HCG numbers.  Her ultrasound on 11/3/06 showed 2 heart beats.  She had twins! She received biweekly acupuncture treatments to prevent miscarriages. As of 1/27/07 one of the twins advanced normally, one miscarried. #2 A new record was achieved on 1/10/06.  A 40 year-old infertility patient with FSH=56 already in menopause for 4 months with hot flashes got pregnant naturally after seeing Dr. Lee who brought the FSH down to 8 in just 4 months— very good news for our patients dealing with infertility.

2005 Outstanding Cases:  #1 45 year-old infertility patient married for 13 yrs FSH=11.7.  Tried to get pregnant on their own for several years with no success.  Because of her advanced age, she planned for IVF in May of 2005.  She started acupuncture treatment in Dec. 2004.  After 15 acupuncture and herbal treatments she got pregnant naturally on 4/08/05 less than 4 months from her 1st visit to Dr. Lee. #2  45 year-old infertility patient had her last child 13 years ago. FSH=7.8  Tried to get pregnant on their own for two years with no success.  She failed her first IUI in May 2004 and was told to have IVF.  She wanted first to try acupuncture and started treatment on Feb. 7, 2005.  After 9 acupuncture and herbal treatments she got pregnant naturally on 5/09/05 about months from her 1st visit with Dr. Lee.

2004 Outstanding Cases:   #1: Infertility patient: age=40, FSH =33,  Pregnant naturally with acupuncture/herb lone after failing 5 IUI and 2 IVF cycles. #2: 35 year-old FSH=6.7 with 4 failed IVF cycles, got pregnant naturally with 11 acupuncture and herbal treatments in 2 months.