London - Acupuncture can improve a woman's chances of successful fertility treatment, according to the latest research.
Scientists found patients who received the needle therapy while undergoing IVF had higher rates of pregnancy and lower rates of miscarriage.
It is the first time that clinical trials have shown acupuncture can boost pregnancy rates for infertile women.
The research was presented at the annual conference of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Philadelphia recently.
| Live birth rates in the acupuncture women were 23 percent higher |
Doctors and scientists, who have traditionally been sceptical about complementary therapies, are now increasingly becoming convinced that they can aid conventional medicine.
The popularity of treatments such as acupuncture and hypnosis has soared during recent years.
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In vitro fertilisation involves mixing eggs with sperm in a test tube and transferring the resulting embryos into the woman's womb.
Previous studies have shown that the transfer process can be uncomfortable and stressful for women, and is crucial to the chances of a successful pregnancy. In the latest study, researchers from the Reproductive Medicine and Fertility Centre in Colorado Springs in the US studied 114 women undergoing IVF procedures. Half of the women received acupuncture during the transfer process, with needles placed in their ears and other parts of their body, while the other half underwent normal treatment without any complementary therapy.
Acupuncture is based on ancient Chinese theories about pressure points in the body and their impact on health and wellbeing.
Only 36 percent of the women on conventional treatment became pregnant, compared with 51 percent of those who received acupuncture. Just eight percent of the acupuncture patients suffered a miscarriage, compared with one in five of the other patients.
The therapy also reduced the risk of ectopic pregnancy, where the embryo develops in the fallopian tube rather than in the womb.
Live birth rates in the acupuncture women were 23 percent higher for each IVF cycle than the conventional patients.
The study authors concluded: "The use of (complementary) therapies in IVF is gaining popularity.
"Acupuncture significantly increased birth outcomes and significantly decreased ectopic pregnancies and miscarriage rates. These data uniquely support a definitive role of acupuncture in IVF patients."
Professor Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University, said: "These are very exciting results and they deserve to be rigorously tested using sham (placebo) acupuncture to ensure the effect is real." - The Independent
- This article was originally published on page 8 of Cape Times on October 25, 2004
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