GAINESVILLE, Fla., Mar 23, 2000 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Research
gynecologists are studying "site specific" massage as a non-surgical infertility
treatment. They joined with a physical therapy group that reports promising
results using "hands on" physical therapy and massage to treat some types of
female infertility.
The therapists were initially surprised when an infertile woman they were
treating for low back and pelvic pain suddenly became pregnant -- after seven
years of infertility. When they used the same technique on other infertile
women, half of them became pregnant following the treatment.
"We are excited about results the therapy group has generated," said Marvin
Heuer, MD, president of the Florida Medical and Research Institute, a
gynecologic research organization. "Preliminary success rates show a 50%
infertility reversal in the eight pilot cases."
"We were treating patients for pelvic pain and post-surgical adhesions when we
began having unexpected pregnancies," said Belinda Wurn, PT, Clinical Director
of Clear Passage Therapies. "Then we realized that our therapy apparently had
the side effect of reversing infertility for some patients."
She developed the technique with her husband, massage therapist Larry Wurn,
after study in America and France.
"Carol was 41 years old and had been infertile for 12 years," said Dr. Michael
Graves, who referred his wife for the treatment. "She had been diagnosed with
endometriosis and pelvic pain. One tube had been removed, the other was
hopelessly blocked. Her infertility file was two inches thick. Carol's
gynecologist had told her nothing more could be done, except in vitro
fertilization, an expensive surgical and pharmaceutical procedure with low
success rates and the chance of multiple births. After eleven hours of therapy,
Carol became pregnant and delivered a healthy baby girl."
According to Dr. Linda Grover, an infertility specialist with the research
group, "We are examining whether the therapists can reduce adhesions in the
reproductive tract. Adhesions can act like an internal glue, disrupting the
delicate movement and function of the organs."
Clinical tests from two pilot studies are encouraging. "While our results to
date are preliminary, they are very promising," said Larry Wurn. "Fifty percent
of the infertile women we treated had full term pregnancies; 75 percent showed
improvement including reversal of tubal blockage following treatment."
According to Dr. Heuer, "If confirmed by further research, these numbers would
compare favorably with more costly assistive reproductive surgeries which have
only a moderate success rate."
The research team has recently initiated physician-monitored clinical trials.
Treatment is open to women with adhesions, blocked fallopian tubes, unexplained
infertility or a history of surgery, trauma, infection or miscarriage.
The therapy, called the WURN Technique(SM), involves no surgery or drugs.
"Treatment consists of gentle, highly specific manual pressures over restricted
areas," Wurn says.
"Medical literature suggests that 80 percent of abdominal and gynecologic
surgeries cause adhesions," explains Belinda Wurn, PT. "Adhesions are also
caused by trauma, such as back, hip or tailbone injury. They may form after
inflammation such as bladder or yeast infections, endometriosis or pelvic
inflammatory disease. Medical literature shows adhesions are a direct or
contributing cause of infertility in about 40 percent of infertile women," she
says. In America, this represents about two million women.
Dr. Richard King, a gynecologist with the research group, helped design the
present clinical trials. "If ongoing studies continue to produce results," he
says, "there are positive implications for infertile women and patients with
pain or dysfunction due to adhesions."
Information is available at www.clearpassage.com or by phone: 352-336-1433.
SOURCE Clear Passage Therapies
