Services: Fertility Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been shown to improve pregnancy rates when treatments are given before and after IVF or IUI (see research below). We see even better outcomes when patients receive acupuncture weekly for at least 3 months before starting an IVF or IUI cycle, but it’s never too late to start. Studies (see summaries below) have also shown increased pregnancy rates and other benefits with treatment before and after embryo transfer.

What are we trying to achieve with acupuncture for fertility? Stimulating bloodflow to the uterus and ovaries, more balanced hormone levels (proper creation and processing of estrogen and progesterone), and decreasing stress and anxiety so you feel more relaxed and the stress response has diminished impact on egg health or implantation.

Key Research

Paulus study

This groundbreaking 2002 research study was conducted at fertility centers and provides the protocol we use today in on-site fertility care. Using this protocol, acupuncture is performed 25 minutes before and after embryo transfer.

In the acupuncture group clinical pregnancies, defined as the presence of a fetal sac during an ultrasound examination 6 weeks after embryo transfer, were documented in 42.5% of patients (34 of 80 patients). The pregnancy rate was only 26.3% (21 out of 80 patients) in the control group.

Guven RCT

New research from Taiwan published in March 2020. This study is significant as it is a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard of scientific research. It also goes beyond clinical pregnancies to follow through ongoing pregnancies and live births. This study also measured anxiety levels and found that the acupuncture group not only experienced more of a decrease in their anxiety but that patients with lower anxiety scores had better pregnancy outcomes.

The acupuncture group had a 63.9% clinical pregnancy rate, a 55.6% ongoing pregnancy rate and a live birth rate of 52.8% compared to the control group’s 33.3% clinical pregnancy rate, 30.6% ongoing pregnancy rate, and a live birth rate of 27.8%.

Patients in the acupuncture group had anxiety scores of 57.3 ± 9.8 before their embryo transfers and 28.8 ± 3.3 after their embryo transfers. Compare that to the control group that had a much smaller change: 57.0 ± 8.0 before embryo transfer and 41.1 ± 6.8 after embryo transfer.