You are here: / Electro acupuncture improves IVF success rate
Vitalis Skiauteris

Electro acupuncture improves IVF success rate

fertility and sterility acupunctureAcupuncture improves clinical pregnancy, implantation rate and live birth rate of IVF embryo transfer. The researchers used Transcutaneous electro acupuncture in this study. Transcutaneous electrostimulation is another way to stimulate acupuncture points. And needles are not necessary!

As you can see from the abstract below, clinical pregnancy rate, implantation rate, and live birth rate all improved in the acupuncture group. With pregnancy rate improving from 29.3% to 50%, implantation rate increasing from 15.0% to 25.9% and live birth dramatically increasing from 21.2% to 42.0%.

The study was published in Fertility and Sterility in 2011.

Fertil Steril. 2011 Oct;96(4):912-6. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2011.07.1093. Epub 2011 Sep 8.
Increase of success rate for women undergoing embryo transfer by transcutaneous electrical acupuncture point stimulation: a prospective randomized placebo-controlled study.

Author information
Zhang R1, Feng XJ, Guan Q, Cui W, Zheng Y, Sun W, Han JS.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate the effect of transcutaneous electrical acupuncture point stimulation (TEAS) on pregnancy rates (PR) in women undergoing ET.

DESIGN:
Prospective, randomized, single-blinded placebo-controlled clinical trial.

SETTING:
Research and laboratory facilities.

PATIENT(S):
A total of 309 patients, less than 45 years old, undergoing cryopreservation embryos transplant or fresh cycle IVF with or without intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

INTERVENTION(S):
The subjects were randomly allocated to three groups: mock TEAS treatment: 30 minutes after ET (group I, n = 99); single TEAS treatment: 30 minutes after ET (group II, n = 110); and double TEAS treatments: 24 hours before ET and 30 minutes after ET (group III, n = 100).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):
Clinical PR, embryos implantation rate, live birth rate.

RESULT(S):
The clinical PR, embryos implantation rate, and live birth rate of group I (29.3%, 15.0%, and 21.2%, respectively) were significantly lower than those in group II (42.7%, 25.7%, and 37.3%, respectively) and group III (50.0%, 25.9%, and 42.0%, respectively).

CONCLUSION(S):
Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation, especially double TEAS, significantly improved the clinical outcome of ET.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21862001

by