Acupuncture on the day of embryo transfer: a randomized controlled trial of 635 patients

Abstract

This prospective, randomized, controlled and double-blinded trial studied whether acupuncture in relation to embryo transfer could increase the ongoing pregnancy rates and live birth rates in women undergoing assisted reproductive therapy. A total of 635 patients undergoing IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) were included. In 314 patients, embryo transfer was accompanied by acupuncture according to the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. In the control group, 321 patients received placebo acupuncture using a validated placebo needle. In the acupuncture group and the placebo group, the ongoing pregnancy rates were 27% (95% CI 22-32) and 32% (95% CI 27-37), respectively. Live birth rates were 25% (95% CI 20-30) in the acupuncture group and 30% (95% CI 25-30) in the placebo group. The differences were not statistically significant. These results suggest that acupuncture administered in relation to embryo transfer has no effect on the outcome of IVF and ICSI.

The Role of Acupuncture in in vitro Fertilization: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…There were 14 RCTs (n = 3,971) performing only around the time of ET. The quality of the included trials is summarized in table 1; 7 of the 14 studies were published as full reports [17,18,19,20,21,22,23], while the remaining 7 were published as conference abstracts [10,11,24,25,26,27,28]; 4 of the studies were in Europe (2 in Denmark [17,18], 1 in Brazil [11], 1 in Germany [20]), 3 in China [21,22,23] and 7 in the USA [10,18,19,24,25,26,27]. …”

“…Of the 14 trials, 7 performed sham (placebo) acupuncture in the control group; 2 trials [23,25] belonged to the unblinded trials group and 5 [17,19,21,26,27] belonged to the group of trials that were blinded to the physicians. Of the above 5 trials, all except the study of Paulus et al [27] were double-blind trials.…”

Increase of success rate for women undergoing embryo transfer by transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation: a prospective randomized placebo-controlled study

“…However, several recent publications contradicted previous findings. Andersen et al (9) applied verum or placebo acupuncture on the day of ET in 635 patients and found no difference of PR in the two groups. There were also reports showing that acupuncture has only a placebo effect, yet they confirmed that acupuncture was safe for women undergoing ET (10,11).…”

Akupunkturbehandlungsmodalitäten bei künstlicher Befruchtung - ein Vergleich der Behandlungspraxis in schweizerischen, deutschen und österreichischen Kinderwunschzentren mit Erhebungen in randomisierten kontrollierten Studien

“…Diese randomisierte kontrollierte Studie (RCT) zeigte eine signifikante Verbesserung der Schwangerschaftsrate (SR) bei Patientinnen mit Akupunkturbehandlungen kurz vor und nach dem Embryotransfer (ET) [12]. In einigen der darauffolgenden RCTs konnte der günstige Einfluss von Akupunktur auf die SR bestätigt werden [14,15], während in anderen keine signifikanten Unterschiede zwischen der Akupunktur-und der Kontrollgruppe [16][17][18][19][20][21][22], und zum Teil eine signifikant höhere SR in der Kontrollgruppe [23,24] …”