You may have heard about people with serious pain turning to acupuncture for help.

But could acupuncture help to get a woman pregnant? A pain management doctor at The Cleveland Clinic says yes.

Speranza Albensi is the long-hoped-for child of Lisa Albensi and her husband.

Lisa Albensi: "Instead of being the one that is always going to the baby showers and never having a baby, all of a sudden people are throwing baby showers for you."

Albensi has endometriousis, a painful pelvic problem that can cause infertility. She tried to get pregnant using invitro fertilization, but it didn't work.

Before trying invitro again, she decided to have acupuncture.

Albensi: "I thought, 'I'm just going to do it. I'm not going to tell anybody. Let's hope it works.' And it did. This time, my hormones reacted a lot better."

Invitro worked the second time. Nine months later, Speranza was born.

Dr. E. David Thomas, The Cleveland Clinic: "I'm 10 for 12, and I hope one more right now that we're working on, who I believe is going to become pregnant."

This early success is surprising when compared with the national average, because acupuncture works in less than half of infertile women.

It's important to note that Thomas' numbers are statistically insignificant, but impressive enough to begin a comprehensive study at The Cleveland Clinic.

Thomas: "We're going to use the blood flow, the hormone changes, to see what's happening with and without acupuncture."

When Albensi and her husband decide to have another child, she will have acupuncture.

Albensi: "I'll definitely do it again."

Thomas says the Cleveland Clinic Fertility Center will follow a large group of women to see if this particular type of acupuncture is better at treating infertility than other acupuncture methods.