U-turn on wisdom of IVF and acupuncture

Published on Wednesday 17 October 2007 01:00

WOMEN who receive acupuncture while undergoing IVF have less chance of becoming pregnant, a study published yesterday suggests.

However, research released last year found acupuncture could double a woman's chance of getting pregnant, when combined with IVF. The theory is that the therapy could impact on the autonomic nervous system, making the lining of the uterus more receptive to receiving an embryo.

But yesterday's study suggested that women given acupuncture were 37 per cent less likely to get pregnant than those who were not treated. Experts from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Centre split a sample of 97 patients into two groups.

The first group was given acupuncture for 25 minutes before and after embryo transfer by one of two acupuncturists at external clinics.

The second group received no such treatment before or after their IVF cycle and acted as controls.

The results showed that more of the women acting as controls (69.6 per cent) became pregnant following IVF than those given acupuncture (43.8 per cent).

Dr LaTasha Craig, a fertility expert at the University of Oklahoma, said: "The results of our study suggest women having fertility treatment should not be advised to have acupuncture."

But she added that, in the face of the seeming contradiction of previous studies, more research needed to be done.

Dr Craig explained that stress could have played a role in producing worse results for women having acupuncture.

She said: "We know stress matters in pregnancy rates. If you take a high stress situation of driving in busy traffic and parking to get to an acupuncture session and then getting to your embryo transfer on time, the benefits of acupuncture may be counteracted by extra stress."

Mark Bovey, of the British Acupuncture Council, said: "This seems to fly in the face of all the published research.

"Up to now, all the published research has indicated an increase in pregnancy rates and take-home baby rates.

"Some practitioners treat hundreds of women having IVF each year and largely have good results with it."