IVF Support
Acupuncture
During the last five years the use of acupuncture in female infertility as an adjunct to conventional treatment such as IVF has increased enormously in an attempt to increase the success rates. During this time the number of studies looking at the effects of acupuncture during IVF has also increased.
Acupuncture is unique compared with other complementary therapies in that it is one of the most researched forms of complementary medicine, and has been the subject of a number of clinical trials in IVF alone.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture has been used to help with fertility problems for thousands of years and is now an excellent example of how a traditional approach has been adapted and integrated to work with some of the most advanced and scientific methods in modern medicine today.
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2008 in the BMJ concluded that “current preliminary evidence suggests that acupuncture given with embryo transfer improves rates of pregnancy and live birth among women undergoing in vitro fertilisation. The odds ratio of 1.65 suggests that acupuncture increased the odds of clinical pregnancy by 65% compared with the control groups”.
If there are potential benefits that may be achieved by integrating acupuncture as a complementary treatment to IVF, then it seems reasonable to include it as part of the treatment protocol for maximising success.
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Some of the problems commonly seen and supported in our clinic are
- Supporting couples through IUI, IVF and ICSI
- Unexplained fertility problems
- PCOS
- Endometriosis
- High FSH and hormonal imbalance
- Recurrent miscarriage
- Male fertility problems