Wednesday, October 21, 2009
More and more researches have been on the positive effect of Acupuncture in IVF (in vitro fertilization) and shown that Acupuncture increases pregnancy rate and decreases the miscarriage rate, below is the one of which shows what Acupuncture does in IVF.
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Group
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Pregnancy Rate
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Ongoing Pregnancy Rate
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Acupuncture
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37 of 95 [39%]
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34 of 95 [36%]
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No Acupuncture
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21 of 87 [26%]
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19 of 87 [22%]
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Westergaard LG, Mao Q, Krogslund M, Sandrini S, Lenz S, Grinsted J.
Fertility Clinic Trianglen, Hellerup, Denmark. l.g.westergaard@dadlnet.dk
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of acupuncture on reproductive outcome in patients treated with IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
One group of patients received acupuncture on the day of ET, another group on ET day and again 2 days later (i.e., closer to implantation day), and both groups were compared with a control group that did not receive acupuncture.
DESIGN: Prospective, randomized trial.
SETTING: Private fertility center.
PATIENT(S): During the study period all patients receiving IVF or ICSI treatment were offered participation in the study. On the day of oocyte retrieval, patients were randomly allocated (with sealed envelopes) to receive acupuncture on the day of ET (ACU 1 group, n = 95), on that day and again 2 days later (ACU 2 group, n = 91), or no acupuncture (control group, n = 87).
INTERVENTION(S): Acupuncture was performed immediately before and after ET (ACU 1 and 2 groups), with each session lasting 25 minutes; and one 25-minute session was performed 2 days later in the ACU 2 group.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Clinical pregnancy and ongoing pregnancy rates in the three groups.
RESULT(S): Clinical and ongoing pregnancy rates were significantly higher in the ACU 1 group as compared with controls (37 of 95 [39%] vs. 21 of 87 [26%] and 34 of 95 [36%] vs. 19 of 87 [22%]). The clinical and ongoing pregnancy rates in the ACU 2 group (36% and 26%) were higher than in controls, but the difference did not reach statistical difference.
CONCLUSION(S): Acupuncture on the day of ET significantly improves the reproductive outcome of IVF/ICSI, compared with no acupuncture. Repeating acupuncture on ET day +2 provided no additional beneficial effect.
My Comments :
The result convinces those women looking for acupuncture with IVF enough to choose it with confidence.
And personally I hope to see more researches of the efficacy of acupuncture conjunctive with IVF and useful data to have the western fertility physicians and infertile women work with more acupuncturists, in order to save the medical expense and time for the whole procedure and increase the pregnancy rate.