Acupuncture ‘improves IVF’

Women undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) who are also given acupuncture may improve the chance of treatment being successful, a new study suggests.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the VU University Amsterdam found that complementing the embryo transfer process with acupuncture increased the odds of pregnancy by 65 per cent compared to sham acupuncture or no additional treatment.

They reviewed seven trials involving 1,366 women undergoing IVF.

The fertility treatment retrieves a woman’s egg, fertilises it in a laboratory and then transfers the embryo back into the woman’s womb.

The trials compared acupuncture given within one day of embryo transfer to sham treatment or no additional treatment.

Women involved in the studies were from a variety of ages and had different causes and durations of infertility.

Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the researchers say the increased chance of pregnancy equates in absolute terms to ten women needing to be treated with acupuncture to bring about one additional pregnancy.

“Although current estimates of the effects of adjuvant acupuncture on in vitro fertilisation are significant and clinically relevant, they are still somewhat preliminary,” the researchers conclude.

“Additional randomised trials are needed to quantify findings further and investigate the relation between baseline rate of pregnancy and the efficacy of adjuvant acupuncture.”