Monday, August 31, 2009

Acupuncture and IVF

I'm going for my third acupuncture treatment with Dr. Needles tonight as part of my preparation for my IVF cycle which starts in September.

Here's a report on a medical study in the British Medical Journal from Feb 2008 titled, "The Effects of acupuncture on rates of pregnancy and live birth among women undergoing invitro fertilisation."

Quotes:

  • "Conclusions: Current preliminary evidence suggests that acupuncture given with embryo transfer improves rates of pregnancy and live birth among women undergoing in vitro fertilisation. "

  • "What is already known on this topic:
    - In vitro fertilisation is lengthy, expensive, and stressful (duh!!)
    - Safe, low cost, adjuvant treatments to improve success rates would benefit patients and reduce costs (you bet!!)

  • "What this study adds:
    - Current evidence from methodologically sound trials showed an odds ratio of more than 1.6 for clinical pregnancy after in vitro fertilisation with adjuvant acupuncture
    - On average, 10 women would need to be treated with acupuncture to bring about one additional clinical pregnancy
    - The magnitude of this effect depended on the baseline pregnancy rate"
Based on this study, and others, my acupuncture clinic claims: "Those who received acupuncture increased their chances of conceiving by 65%."

Do any of you out there in the interweb have acupuncture success/failure stories to tell?

Jem
Update on 9/1/2009:
Here are further articles given to me by other acupucturists:

1 comment:

Pie said...

I did acupuncture for my 2nd IVF. Loved it for the relaxation, and decrease in bloated feelings during stims. But I've since done the doppler u/s as part of a new clinic work-up, I've learned I have good blood flow to my uterus, and acupuncture will not benefit me. I think the benefit of acupuncture (especially electro-acupuncture) is to enhance or increase uterine blood flow. And the relaxation of it too.