In the last several years there has been a number of new studies about acupuncture for
fertility and IVF. What do the best scientific studies indicate about the use of acupuncture
for IVF success?. Be sure to stay tuned to the end for my InfertilityTV bottom Line
The general theory of acupuncture is based on the premise that there are patterns of energy
flow through the body, which are essential for health. This energy flow is known as
Qi (pronounced chee). Disruption of the body’s Qi is believed to be responsible for disease.
Acupuncture claims to correct imbalances of Qi at identifiable points close to the
skin. These acupuncture points correspond to specific areas on the surface of the body.
Some theories about the effects of acupuncture have suggested that there may be some benefit
to fertility by increasing blood flow to the ovaries or uterus. Other theories are that
acupuncture may increase relaxation of the uterus or even change the levels of various hormones.
How can we determine whether acupuncture treatment increases the likelihood for
becoming pregnant and having a live birth? For that matter,
how can we tell whether any fertility treatment is effective? The best scientific method will
compare two identical groups. One group gets the treatment the other does not. This is known as a
randomized controlled trial. It's even better if the patients and doctors don't know who received
the real treatment. This is known as a placebo controlled randomized control trial. Finally,
the study should be large enough to be able to give statistically valid results
To study the effectiveness of acupuncture then,
you need one group that has real acupuncture and another group that gets fake or placebo
acupuncture. If the acupuncture group gets more people pregnant than the placebo group,
then we have high quality evidence that acupuncture helps people become pregnant.
There are a few studies that have now looked at the effectiveness of acupuncture in this way.
One of the best studies ever performed was done in Australia and New Zealand. They
studied over 800 couples undergoing IVF from 16 different IVF centers.
The first acupuncture treatment was administered after fertility medications were started but
before the egg retrieval and 2 treatments were given on the day of embryo transfer.
Each acupuncturist had a minimum of 2 years clinical experience and all
acupuncturists were trained in the treatment protocol with annual refresher training.
Unfortunately, this study showed no benefit to the
use of acupuncture. Both groups had the same pregnancy rate.
A similar study was performed at 4 IVF centers in Denmark. This study had over
600 participants. Like the previous study, there was no difference in the pregnancy
rate or live birth rate between the real and fake acupuncture group.
In the previous two studies, the participants had fresh embryo transfers. These days, however,
it is more common for patients to freeze their embryos and have the transfer later.
These are known as frozen embryo transfers or FET cycles. Even if acupuncture doesn’t
work for fresh transfers could it work for frozen embryo transfers? Doctors in Hong Kong performed
a placebo controlled trial of acupuncture in FET cycles. Unfortunately, they also failed to
find any difference in the chance for pregnancy or live birth with the use of acupuncture. This was
true whether participants were having their first embryo transfer or had failed transfers before.
Our Infertility TV Bottom line is this. Acupuncture as a means to improve IVF success
rates has been rigorously studied all over the world in multiple high quality studies. These
high quality studies all failed to find a benefit to using acupuncture on either fresh or frozen
transfers. As of 2023, we can say that acupuncture is ineffective as a fertility enhancing treatment.