Assisted Reproduction Techniques and Acupuncture: Does it works? Literature review

Abstract

Objective: to review the role of acupuncture as a coadjutant therapy in assisted reproduction techniques (ART). Material and method: we used the search engines: Medline, Pubmed, Pubmed Central and Google Scholar; with the following keywords: "acupuncture in vitro fertilization", "acupuncture ivf", "acupuncture infertility", "traditional Chinese medicine ivf", "complementary medicine ivf". Results: we found 189 articles and only 45 were selected. There were also 22 reviews and 7 metaanalysis from which we included 15 and 4 respectively. Conclusion: The role of acupuncture as a coadjutant therapy in ART remains controversial. Future research should focus into following international guidelines in order to obtain clear and consistent results and reproducibility.