Acupuncture with IVF

Many couples who have difficulty conceiving a child by traditional methods often employ various techniques to assist them in the reproductive process. The most common assisted reproduction therapy is in-vitro fertilization (IVF), in which a woman’s eggs are harvested and fertilized with a man’s sperm in a laboratory. In cases where a male’s sperm count is extremely low, a different procedure known as intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) may be used.

Although assisted reproduction techniques like IVF and ICSI have been in use since the 1970s, they are still something of an inexact science. Success rates for each therapy range from as low as 1% to as high as 50%, and a successful pregnancy depends on a variety of factors, including the age of the woman, the cause of infertility, and the skill of the technician performing the procedure. Acupuncture is a useful tool for patients looking to increase their chances of becoming pregnant following assisted reproduction therapy.

Two teams of researchers in Germany and China have found that adding acupuncture to the treatment regimen of women using assisted reproductive techniques to have a child can dramatically improve the woman’s chances of getting pregnant by up to 20%. In these women the chosen acupuncture points were those that relax the uterus according to the principles of TCM. This greatly increased the chances of getting pregnant because acupuncture has a great influence on the autonomic nervous system and needling specific points would optimized endometrial receptivity in these women

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