Saturday, November 3, 2007

Acupuncture may reduce the success of IVF

MacKenna Roberts
Progress Educational Trust
27 October 2007


Previous studies had appeared to indicate a marginal increase in IVF efficacy or showed no obvious benefit, allowing some to scientifically postulate that the ancient far eastern medical practice of acupuncture might somehow affect certain muscles and glands of the nervous system to help the lining of the uterus become more receptive to embryo implantation.

The latest study evaluated the results of 97 patients with an average age of 35 who were randomly divided into two groups. One group received acupuncture for 25 minutes before and after embryo implantation. The pregnancy rate for the IVF group without acupuncture was 69.9 per cent compared to the 43.8 per cent less successful pregnancy rate for those who received the two-pronged acupuncture 'therapy' approach. Dr Craig suggested that other factors may have counteracted any therapeutic effect of acupuncture such as the stress from undergoing acupuncture just before IVF or from travel in traffic to external acupuncture clinics and onto IVF appointments.

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