A research article entitled “Effects of Acupuncture versus Sham Acupuncture on Live Births among Women Undergoing In-Vitro Fertilization, A Randomized Clinical Trail” had been published in the May 2018 issue of Journal of American Medical Association, written by Prof. Caroline Smith of Australia. Dr. Jenny attended a presentation of this research by Prof. Smith herself in August 2017 before its publication.

Prof. Caroline Smith–*Effects of Acupuncture versus Sham Acupuncture on Live Births among Women Undergoing In-Vitro Fertilization, A Randomized Clinical Trail

As expected the trial reinforced what other research into the benefits of acupuncture in IVF outcomes has found [1-4] , higher clinical pregnancy rates with the use of acupuncture in conjunction with IVF treatment (25.7% and 21.7% in this study) in contrast to the IVF success rate (20%) on its own [5]. However surprisingly, the final conclusion in this study was “findings do not support the use of acupuncture as a means to improve the rate of live births among women undergoing IVF.”

“These results raised a few questions in my mind and I disagree with this conclusion, therefore I wrote an article to raise awareness of the research methods used, and share my thoughts on ways to improve the validity and reliability of study results.”

Dr. Jenny Li—*Acupuncture Increases the Pregnancy Rate for Women Undergoing IVF but Does Not Improve the Live Birth Outcome? Questionable Conclusion Based on a Large Sampled Acupuncture/ IVF Randomized Controlled Trial

Reference

[1] DIETERLE S, YING G, HATZMANN W, et al. Effect of acupuncture on the outcome of in vitro 
fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection: a randomized, prospective, controlled 
clinical study [J]. Fertility and sterility, 2006, 85(5): 1347-51.
[2] BALK J, CATOV J, HORN B, et al. The relationship between perceived stress, acupuncture,
and pregnancy rates among IVF patients: a pilot study [J]. Complementary therapies in clinical 
practice, 2010, 16(3): 154-7.
[3] PAULUS W E, ZHANG M, STREHLER E, et al. Influence of acupuncture on the pregnancy rate 
in patients who undergo assisted reproduction 
therapy [J]. Fertility and sterility, 2002, 77(4): 721-4.
[4] WESTERGAARD L G, MAO Q, KROGSLUND M, et al. Acupuncture on the day of embryo transfer 
significantly improves the reproductive outcome in infertile women: a prospective, 
randomized trial [J]. Fertility and sterility, 2006, 85(5): 1341-6.
[5] HAAN G. Effects and Costs of In-Vitro Fertilization: Again, Let'sBe Honest [J]. 
International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 1991, 7(4): 585-93.