Acupuncture doesn't improve likelihood of IVF success, study finds
Acupuncture doesn’t improve the chances of women undergoing IVF having a baby, according to a study of hundreds of Australian and New Zealand women.
The treatment is widely used but researchers for the latest fertility study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Wednesday, have cast doubt on its effectiveness.
A total of 848 women across 16 IVF centres in Australia and New Zealand were given either acupuncture or sham acupuncture, administered prior to a fresh embryo transfer and also on the day of it, between June 2011 and October 2015.
Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
The sham treatment involved placing a non-invasive needle with a blunt tip away from true acupuncture points.
There was a 0.5% difference in the rate of women who received acupuncture and had a live birth or births (18.3%, or 74 women) compared with those given the fake alternative (17.8%, or 72 women).
“These findings do not support the use of acupuncture to improve the rate of live births among women undergoing IVF,” the paper concludes.
Pains and needles: brain scans point to hidden effects of acupuncture
Read more
“The likelihood of a live birth was not statistically different between the two groups after adjusting for age, number of previous IVF cycles and participating IVF centre.”
But the chief investigator, Caroline Smith, professor of clinical research at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine, said acupuncture might still be worthwhile.
“Some studies suggest reproductive outcomes may be improved when acupuncture is compared with no treatment,” she said.
According to the research, a “psycho-social benefit” from acupuncture was reported by women undergoing IVF.
University of New South Wales Professor Michael Chapman, study co-author and president of the Fertility Society of Australia, said such benefits would be reported on in a future paper.
“Feeling relaxed and reporting relief from stress and women feeling good about themselves is to be welcomed for women as they undergo an IVF cycle,” he said.
Comment was being sought from the Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association.