Acupuncture for Fertility

Women who undergo in-vitro fertilization (IVF) may be more likely to get pregnant if they get acupuncture, says a preliminary study published in the April 2002 issue of Fertility and Sterility.
IVF involves harvesting a woman's eggs, fertilizing them with a man's sperm in a laboratory environment and then transferring the resulting embryos back into the woman's uterus.

One hundred sixty women were divided into two groups in this randomized German study. The first control group underwent IVF without acupuncture. The second group had acupuncture 25 minutes before and 25 minutes after embryo transfer.

Thirty four of the 80 patients (43 per cent) undergoing acupuncture became pregnant, compared to 21 out of 80 (26 per cent) in the control group. The researchers concluded that acupuncture seems to be a useful tool for improving pregnancy rate, but added that more research is needed to determine whether the higher rate was due to physiological or psychological effects.

Fertility and Sterility 2002; 77: 721-724.