One in eight couples is affected by infertility. Faced with the overwhelming emotional and physical stress of trying to conceive, many couples seek alternative treatments after conventional medicine fails.
The Wurn Technique® is one such approach. Developed by Belinda and Larry Wurn, this treatment is based on manually palpatating blockages caused by adhesions in the body, offering a drug and surgery-free treatment for infertility, chronic pain and a long list of pelvic conditions.
Infertility, Pelvic Issues, Pain and Adhesions
Adhesions inevitably form in everyone's body at one time or another. The tiny strong fibers called cross-links, are simply the final step in the natural healing process. A fall, cut, break, inflammation, surgery or infection, essentially any trauma or assault to the body can cause adhesions to form to help the area heal. While natural to the healing process, small, often microscopic adhesions can lead to pain or poor functioning, sometimes even decades after the initial trauma occurs.
Adhesions are problematic because they glue down the muscles or delicate organs and decrease their function, and once adhesions attach and grow they can pull on nerves and sensitive structures within the body, which leads to pain. Although adhesions are a by-product of the healing process, the body isn't able to break them down so they remain a permanent part of the body's structure and often cause dysfunction.
Surgery is the primary cause and research indicates that about 80% of open abdominal and pelvic surgeries cause adhesions. About a third of the patients, according to a British study (1), who underwent open abdominal or pelvic surgery were readmitted to the hospital at least two more times for follow-up adhesion-related surgeries. Surgery often leads patients to enter this vicious cycle of adhesions forming, getting another surgery to address adhesions and so on.
Adhesions can cause chronic pain and dysfunction in a number of functions in the body, including the reproductive processes. Nearly half of all female infertility patients have adhesions.
Physical Therapy and Massage Technique Improves Fertility
In 1984, when physical therapist Belinda Wurn underwent treatment for cervical cancer, the radiation therapy designed to save her life left her with scarring, adhesions and chronic pain. Belinda and her husband Larry a massage therapist, searched for years for relief. Yet, when a string of conventional medical approaches failed, the couple decided to take a series of post-graduate courses in manual (hands-on) physical therapy.
Over time what they learned drastically relieved Belinda's chronic pain. As a result, after researching numerous methods and studying with respected osteopathic and physical therapy clinicians across the country, the Wurns refined what they learned to create their own palpitation method to treat restricted areas in the body. Most “unexplained” pain in patients, they found, was caused by these all too common yet under-diagnosed adhesions.
There are a number of conditions that can cause adhesions including:
- Abdominal or pelvic surgery
- Abortion or D&C
- Pelvic inflammations (vaginitis, cystitis, colitis, etc.)
- Abdominal inflammations (appendicitis, gastritis, etc.)
- Bladder or yeast infections
- Endometriosis
- Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
- Sexually transmitted, IUD
- Physical trauma (e.g. vehicle accident)
- Back or hip injury
- Physical or sexual abuse
IVF, Endometriosis, Sexual and Hormone Functioning Improves
The Wurn Technique® involves a hands-on therapy based on massage and physical therapy principles and has been successful with the following:
- Pre-In vitro fertilization (IVF) therapy
- Blocked fallopian tubes
- Pelvic and endometriosis pain
- Hormone levels
- Sexual function and intercourse pain
- Tailbone pain
Therapy feels much like a slow, deep massage and often includes some internal (vaginal) treatment, although patients can always decline internal treatment. Internal treatment has been used by physical therapists, write the Wurns in their material, to treat incontinence since 1975 and is still endorsed by the APTA today.
Patient Awareness and Tapping Intuition Increases Healing
Trained therapists engage in a step-by-step process with patients that includes reviewing their history, setting goals, doing a palpatory evaluation, and finally, manual treatment. Therapists work closely with patients to bring awareness to past and current events that may have led to their symptoms.
Not entirely mainstream but extremely empowering for patients, Wurn therapists encourage their clients to actively participate in their own healing process, suggesting they tap into their own intuition, or “inner wisdom” to find answers.
“We realize that this attitude is not scientific and is controversial itself,” write the Wurns in their book, Miracle Moms, Better Sex, Less Pain (Med-Art Press, 2009). “ Yet over time, we have noticed that patients who make decisions based on a combination of medical advice and their own intuition have been more successful and reached their goals faster than those who lived by empirical scientific advice alone.”
The Wurns claim a 71% natural pregnancy success rate with patients within one year of receiving therapy, backing their findings with clinical research. They disclaim on their website however that “Ongoing success rates with natural fertility reversal can be difficult to determine due to follow-up, 12 and 24 months after therapy. Judging from success rates we can easily measure (e.g. opening blocked fallopian tubes, IVF pregnancies after therapy) we believe our natural fertility success rate is between 60% and 65%.”
There are numerous conventional and alternative approaches available for women and men who face infertility, chronic pain, sexual dysfunction and related conditions. The Wurn Technique® however, addresses one of the most common yet under-diagnosed underlying causes of these medical issues, adhesions that can block the body’s natural ability to function effectively on its own.
Resources:
Clear Passage Physical Therapy. "Links to Infertility Support" (accessed September 28, 2010).
Footnote:
- Ellis H, Moran BJ, Thompson JN, Parker MC, Wilson MS, Menzies D, McGuire A, Lower AM, Hawthorn RJ, O’Brien F, Buchan S, Crowe AM. "Adhesion-related hospital readmissions after abdominal and pelvic surgery: a retrospective cohort study." Lancet Br J Med. 1999.
Laura Owens - Laura Owens has a B.S. in Psychology from Rollins College & U of FL. She is a freelance writer with expertise in motivation & wellness.
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