Effect of Acupuncture on IVF Remains Unclear
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
The use of acupuncture to increase fertility is far from new — dating back to Taoist tradition over 8,000 years ago — but its use in societies in which Western medicine dominates is less than a century old, and no one knows for sure whether acupuncture can increase the chances of becoming pregnant. A new review of studies attempts to come closer to an answer.
The review found no strong evidence that acupuncture improves the chances of becoming pregnant, but did find a small difference in the live birth rate; however, this was only when patients underwent acupuncture on the day of the embryo transfer. There was no benefit noted when the patients had acupuncture during egg retrieval or in the days following embryo transfer.
The review included 13 studies that each examined whether acupuncture improved the pregnancy rate in women undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment, but for reasons that are unclear, the studies used different acupuncture points to achieve the same objectives.