Abstract
Although acupuncture has been offered to infertile women for thousands of years, the first randomized controlled trial on the impact of acupuncture with IVF patients was not published until 2002. That study showed a significant increase in the clinical pregnancy rate in women who underwent acupuncture treatment prior to and after embryo transfer when compared to a control group. Since then, the use of acupuncture with ART patients has become widespread, and the early trials tended to replicate the initial findings. However, more recent research has not indicated as strong an impact, and the efficacy of acupuncture with this patient population is being questioned. The focus of this chapter includes information on the discrepancy between the early and more recent research, a discussion on the appropriateness of the chosen control groups, an explanation of the challenges of performing Western-style research on an Eastern intervention, the potential for bias in the published literature, and clinical recommendations for patients.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Melissa Milstein for her assistance with the literature review needed for this chapter.
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Hay, M.P., Domar, A.D. (2015). Is Acupuncture Associated with Improved IVF Outcomes?. In: Carrell, D., Schlegel, P., Racowsky, C., Gianaroli, L. (eds) Biennial Review of Infertility. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17849-3_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17849-3_10
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