ACUPUNCTURE
CHILDBIRTH
TEAM (ACT)

Brighton & Sussex

Research

IVF

A randomised study conducted in Germany took 160 patients undergoing ART (assisted reproductive therapy) with good quality embryos and divided them into two groups: embryo transfer with acupuncture, (80 women) and embryo transfer without acupuncture, (80 women). Clinical pregnancies were documented in 34 out of 80 patients (42.5%) in the acupuncture group, whereas the pregnancy rate was only 26.3% (21 of 80 patients) in the control group.

See “Influence of acupuncture on the pregnancy rate in patients who undergo assisted reproduction therapy” by Wolfgang E. Paulus MD, Christian-Lauritzen- Institut, Ulm, Germany 2001. (PDF)

Researchers at the University of Southampton and Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton, UK, have found that women undergoing acupuncture at the same time as IVF increased their chances of having a baby from one in five to one in three.

The research, published on the Cochrane Library’s online database, involved looking at 13 studies comprising 2,000 women worldwide, who underwent acupuncture at the same time as a course of IVF.

Every year 33,000 women undergo IVF, when an embryo that has been fertilised in a laboratory is transferred into the womb. Acupuncture, the practice of inserting fine needles into specific points on the body corresponding to Qi energy channels, was found to significantly increase a woman’s chance of successful embryo implantation (www.bionews.org.uk)

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