Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : eCAM, Real acu: located in abdominal muscles and leg muscles, and in the hands and head, Sham acu: in each shoulder and upper arm at nonacupuncture points, LBR, RO, conception, pregnancy, and multiple pregnancy, AE, Real acu: be beneficial to the uterus and ovaries, Sham acu: away from known acupuncture points and with no known function, SP10, SP8, LR3, ST36, EX-CA1,CY4, PC6,CY12, Real acu: manual manipulation AND moxibustion (the principles of traditional Chinese medicine and the classic point localization, including depth of insertion), Sham acu: nonmeridian and shallow stimulus AND no moxibustion (performed in the arm and thigh), Real acu: meridia and manual manipulation, Sham acu: nonmeridian and shallow stimulus, Real acu: in qi lines (CV6, SP8, LR3, ST29, GV20, HT7)+AA55, AA50, AA58, AA22, Sham acu: in non-qi lines (near the acupoints above) + knee, heel, allergic area, mouth, The true acupuncture treatment was designed to influence fertility closely, These were located close to but not on the real acupuncture points. Studies were categorized according to the type of control group: acupuncture vs. sham acupuncture and acupuncture vs. no intervention; other trials were excluded, such as acupuncture vs. some medication, real acupuncture with Chinese herbology vs. sham, acupuncture with Chinese herb, and acupuncture with medication vs. medication alone. By manipulating the needles in conjunction with gentle electrical stimulation (a practice known as electropuncture), your nerves are activated, helping your body release substances called endorphins. Low sperm motility is one factor that can lead to infertility. 2019;39:4962. One 2018 study examined the effects of acupuncture compared with sham acupuncture on live births among women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Dowagers Hump: What It Is and How To Get Rid of It. conducted a randomized trial (RCT), showing that acupuncture, compared with control treatment involving standard care, doubled the odds of becoming pregnant [6]. Sensitivity analysis comparison between true acupuncture and control groups. The retrieval formula was as follows: (Title/Abstract): female infertility/sterility, assisted reproduction, embryo transfer, in vitro fertilization, polycystic ovary syndrome, acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, electroacupuncture, and needle; we also searched for previous systematic reviews on this topic and reviewed their reference lists [2023]. Measurement data of parallel control trials (1:1) will be analyzed statistically using the following formula for sample size estimation: With a 5% significance level (=0.05, two-sided) and 80% power (=0.2), at least 62 patients should be enrolled in each group and a total of 142 participants will be recruited to allow for a 15% dropout rate. Qu F., Zhang D, Chen L. T, et al. Could hallucination-free 'psychedelics' be the future of antidepressants?
Acupuncture for Fertility: Does It Really Work? - Cleveland Clinic FOIA The site is secure. These results were unexpected, as sham acupuncture was used on acupoints unrelated to reproductive function or with nonirritating needles or patches placed on the relevant acupoints but without giving qi stimulation, as required by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory [7, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 35, 3739, 42, 43, 47]. Pulsatility index (PI) in the uterine arteries is considered valuable in assessing endometrial receptivity, and it was found to have decreased after EA treatment [24]. 2017;18(3):18693. Relationship between endometrial thickness and embryo implantation, based on 1,294 cycles of in vitro fertilization with transfer of two blastocyst-stage embryos. Acupuncture is not as effective as infertility treatment in women with PCOS. 2000;17(3):1747. The effects of acupuncture on pregnancy outcomes of in vitro fertilization: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Research from 2017 found that there was not enough evidence to support using acupuncture to treat infertility in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Teh WT, McBain J, Rogers P. What is the contribution of embryo-endometrial asynchrony to implantation failure? Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials, Standardized Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials, Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture, Transcutaneous electrical acupuncture point stimulation. Can diet help improve depression symptoms? Some research has shown that in pregnant women who did depression-focused acupuncture, the treatment reduced symptoms by 63 percent. Currently, there is no one acceptable approach to treat thin endometrium [23], thus the need for an alternative and complementary therapy for patients with thin endometrium. Zhang J., He Y., Liu Y., Huang X., Yu H. Effectiveness of different acupuncture for infertility: overview of systematic reviews and network meta-analysis. Our. Andersen D., Lssl K., Nyboe Andersen A., et al. It has been reported that nearly two-thirds of failed implantation in IVF (in vitro fertilization) are caused by poor endometrial receptivity [7]. In TCM, the selection of acupoints should be individualized based on the presentation of the disease condition. 1991; 16 (1-2):1-5. Eleven studies [7, 26, 28, 30, 31, 3740, 42,43] presented most of the required information and were judged as of high quality. Sensitivity analyses did not affect any of the estimates, except for the adverse event rate, which was higher in the true group than in the control group. During the intervention period, the acupuncturist and the data collection researcher will not be allowed to exchange information on grouping, treatment procedures, and outcomes. Reprod BioMed Online. Rowe PJ, Comhaire FH, Hargreave TB. And you may even turn to complementary methods likeacupuncture, a natural practice thats thousands of years old. Endometrium exhibits a short period of receptivity, known as the window of implantation [2]. Domar A. D., Rooney K. L., Wiegand B., et al. In the present study, there was no impact of true acupuncture on biochemical or ongoing pregnancy rates. In these RCTs, this principle was not used as the same acupuncture program had to be used for all patients in a group. The present findings suggest that true acupuncture is unlikely to improve live birth rates compared to those associated with sham acupuncture; however, live birth rates were higher in the acupuncture group than in the blank control group. This article will explore everything there is to know about acupuncture for fertility - how fertility acupuncture works, fertility acupuncture treatment protocols, where to find an acupuncturist with special training in treating fertility, and more. Heterogeneity among cases was evaluated by the chi-square test with significance set at P values of <0.10; if heterogeneity among studies was high, we used the random-effects model; otherwise, we used the fixed-effects model. Nevertheless, the results from this trial will provide evidence of EA as a possible therapy for thin endometrium in infertile women. Firstly, the acupuncturists cannot be blinded due to the nature of the intervention. Endometrial blood flow directly reflects the microenvironment of embryo implantation. Deligdisch L. Hormonal pathology of the endometrium. Conventional and modern markers of endometrial receptivity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Categorical variables will be presented by frequency (percentage) and analyzed with the chi-squared test or Fishers exact test. A total of 27 RCTs evaluated a total of 7676 cases (4375 cases and 3301 controls); these studies included 25 full-text articles [6, 7, 9, 10, 2545] and 2 conference abstracts [46, 47]. They will be required to master all of the details of the trial and pass a test before performing it. Google Scholar. Reprod BioMed Online. 2019;17(1):62. Part of Adhesive pads will be applied to both EA and SEA groups to ensure that the participants are unaware of the differences between the two acupuncture treatments. Therefore, the change in endometrial thickness will be used as an evaluation index. J Hum Reprod Sci. 2015;33(1):915. Use of this site is subject to our terms of use and privacy policy. Ask your reproductive endocrinologist if he or she can refer you to anyone. Wang X. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our. Dehghani A. S., Homayouni K., Kanannejad Z., Kanannejad Z. Zhong Y, Zeng F, Liu W, Ma J, Guan Y, Song Y. Acupuncture in improving endometrial receptivity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Remoh J, Ardiles G, Garca-Velasco JA, Gaitn P, Simn C, Pellicer A. Endometrial thickness and serum oestradiol concentrations as predictors of outcome in oocyte donation. However, the participants, data collection staff, and data analysts will be blinded. Infertility is explicitly defined as a failure to become pregnant within 12 months of having regular, unprotected, heterosexual intercourse [1]; it affects approximately 48.5 million couples worldwide [2]. Course description. Fertil Steril. Kasius A, Smit JG, Torrance HL, Eijkemans MJ, Mol BW, Opmeer BC, et al. 2019;39(9):9236. Acupuncture has been used to treat infertility extensively, including ovulatory dysfunction, in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET), and male infertility. Exogenous hormone use and endometrial cancer in U.S. black women. Manheimer E., Zhang G., Udoff L., et al.
Acupuncture for Fertility - Info, Protocols, and Specialist Locator But anecdotally, many people swear by the benefits of acupuncture when theyre trying to conceive. 2009;18:7984. What are the best ways to increase sperm count? But expect to pay between $125 and $300. August 13, 2016 | Holistic Care, Wellness Blog. The primary outcome of this trial is endometrial thickness in the midluteal phase. Almost all of the studies were designed in detail with the exception of two conference papers [46, 47]; therefore, we extracted more relevant observation indicators. There was no difference in live birth rates between the true and sham acupuncture groups (n=4043) [26, 28, 29, 31, 37, 39, 4143, 47] (OR: 1.18; 95% CI: 0.891.58; P=0.26). However, the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in IVF-ET is still highly controversial. 2019;10:61. 2019;38(3):47280. Again, many of these are small pilot studies; larger, controlled studies still need to be done. LR3 combines with LI4, which are called Si-guan points to regulate Qi circulation. . Thin endometrium negatively impacts the reproductive function. We employed Medical Subject Heading terms and relevant keywords for the search. Learn about fertile discharge, and what it, Sperm motility refers to the ability of the sperm to move efficiently. Increasing blood flow to your reproductive organs. When Should You Have Sex if Youre Trying to Get Pregnant? Some people choose to seek traditional and complementary treatments, such as acupuncture, to help treat fertility issues. Knowing when this occurs may help people conceive or avoid pregnancy. di Villahermosa D. I. M., dos Santos L. G., Nogueira M. B., Vilarino F. L., Barbosa C. P. Influence of acupuncture on the outcomes of in vitro fertilisation when embryo implantation has failed: a prospective randomised controlled clinical trial. The characteristics of the included studies are summarized in Table 1. The effects of acupuncture on female infertility remain controversial. Acupuncturists who have been certified by the Ministry of Health of the Peoples Republic of China and have more than 5years of clinical experience will be recruited to perform the procedures on the participants in the study. It has been shown that thin endometrium leads to infertility [3]. The light seen and the sound of the pulse generator heard will be the same as the EA group. Its great for stress relief, which can go a long way when youre trying to conceive.
How Traditional Chinese Medicine (Acupuncture) Enhances Fertility To evaluate the safety of acupuncture, we will use a Fisher exact test to report the relative risk of an adverse effect. Hormonal induction of endometrial receptivity. Kerry Boyle D.Ac., M.S., L.Ac., Dipl. Once a serious adverse event occurs, the researcher will terminate the trial and rescue procedures will be initiated at once. ST36, SP6, SP10, LI 4, ACU 2: acupuncture was given on the day of ET and duration 2days after ET. Palomba S., Fornaciari E., Falbo A., La Sala G. B. Chen ZX, Li Y, Zhang XG, Chen S, Yang WT, Zheng XW, et al. . Secondly, estimation of sample size of the proposed study was based on our previous clinical observation of a small sample size. Elisabet Stener-Victorin [1.4], Urban Waldenstrm [2], Sven A. Andersson [3] and Matts Wikland [2] [1]Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology [2]Fertility Centre Scandinavia. 2014;30:40914. Consequently, 25 studies (n=7224) were included; the rates of pregnancy were different between the true and control groups (40.4% and 33.9%; OR: 1.43; 95% CI: 1.211.69; P < 0.0001) (Figure 5). There was no between-group difference in the rates of implantation or miscarriage, or a number of oocytes retrieved or that of good-quality embryos. Clinical studies have found that acupuncture may improve the high-quality embryo rate [30] and clinical pregnancy rate [31] by improving endometrial blood flow state and the uterine environment. Chapter 9 analyzing data and undertaking meta-analyses. If youre trying to get pregnant, you may be doing everything in your power to make it happen, including considering a natural, complementary practice thousands of years old: acupuncture. Does acupuncture work to increase fertility? Rashidi B. H., Tehrani E. S., Hamedani N. A., Pirzadeh L. Effects of acupuncture on the outcome of in vitro fertilisation and intracytoplasmic sperm injection in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome. Hum Reprod Update. Factors associated with effectiveness of treatment and reproductive outcomes in patients with thin endometrium undergoing estrogen treatment. Primary outcomes were clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) and live birth rate (LBR). 2006;21:303643. Two authors (Kewei Quan and Chuyi Yu) independently selected and reviewed all studies; any disagreements were resolved by discussion. In this trial, acupoints selection follows TCM theory or published articles.
Electroacupuncture Enhances Number of Mature Oocytes and Fertility The present findings suggest that true acupuncture does not affect female fertility outcomes. If they meet the study criteria, they will be invited for a face-to-face interview for baseline screening with the researcher. Wang W., Check J. H., Liss J. R., Choe J. K. A matched controlled study to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture for improving pregnancy rates following in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer. Introduction Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is diagnosed on the basis of oligo-ovulation or anovulation, hyperandrogenism, and the presence of polycystic ovaries. Kunicki M, ukaszuk K, Woclawek-Potocka I, Liss J, Kulwikowska P, Szczyptaska J. Incidences of thin endometrium in ovarian stimulation cycles and natural cycles are 3866% [8] and 525% [9], respectively. Herein, we aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs, including subgroup analyses and meta-regressions, to examine the impact of acupuncture on female infertility. Other risks can include: To minimize the risks, a person should always choose a qualified acupuncturist. The researchers concluded that the difference was negligible, and that acupuncture at the time of follicle stimulation and embryo transfer does not affect live birth rates. Each participant will receive intervention in a personal space separated by bed curtain and no communication will be allowed between participants. Statistical analyses of data will be performed using SPSS21.0 software (International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY) by analysts who will be blinded to the patients allocation. As there were >10 trials included in the analysis, sensitivity analyses were used for high quality; funnel plots were used to assess potential publication bias. How soon after miscarriage can I get pregnant again?