Women who used acupuncture along with usual in vitro fertilization procedures had higher conception rates. The authors of a study published in the Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics concluded that acupuncture can significantly improve clinical pregnancy rates and live birth rates among women undergoing in vitro fertilization. ~ Dr. Broussard
Effects of acupuncture on pregnancy outcomes in women undergoing in vitro fertilization: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis
Published: 12 July 2023
Menghao Xu, Mengdi Zhu & Cuihong Zheng
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics (2023)
Abstract
Purpose
To evaluate the effects of acupuncture on IVF-ET outcomes.
Methods
Digital databases, including Pubmed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, the Web of Science and ScienceDirect, were searched from their inception to July 2022. The MeSH terms we used included: acupuncture, in vitro fertilization, assisted reproductive technology and randomized controlled trial. The reference lists of relevant documents were also searched. The biases of included studies were assessed by the Cochrane Handbook 5.3. The major outcomes were clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) and live birth rate (LBR). The pregnancy outcomes reported in these trials were pooled and expressed as risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) in the Review Manager 5.4 meta-analysis software. Heterogeneity of the therapeutic effect was evaluated with a forest plot analysis. Publication bias was assessed by a funnel plot analysis.
Results
Twenty-five trials (a total of 4757 participants) were included in this review. There were no significant publication biases for most of the comparisons among these studies. The pooled CPR (25 trials) of all the acupuncture groups (43.6%) was significantly higher than that of all the control groups (33.2%, P < 0.00001), and the pooled LBR (11 trials) of all the acupuncture groups (38.0%) was significantly higher than that of all the control groups (28.7%, P < 0.00001). Different acupuncture methods (manual acupuncture, electrical acupuncture and transcutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation), acupuncture time (before or during the time of controlled ovarian hyperstimulation and around the time of embryo transfer), and acupuncture courses (at least 4 sessions and less than 4 sessions) have respectively positive effects on IVF outcomes.
Conclusion
Acupuncture can significantly improve CPR and LBR among women undergoing IVF. Placebo acupuncture can be a relatively ideal control measure.