There are a high percentage of unsuccessful pregnancies in In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment. Some take many IVF cycles before a successful pregnancy is achieved. As a consequence, women are searching for many options to increase the chances of getting pregnant with IVF treatment. Some resort to acupuncture with IVF treatment.
What is Acupuncture?
In some investigations, it was found out that acupuncture with IVF can increase the possibility of successful pregnancy. Acupuncture is an alternative medicine which is similar to acupressure in terms of technique applications. The only difference is that in acupuncture, fine needles are used to insert at specific points in the body along the pathways under the skin. It restores normal balance of energy which stimulates, relieves pain and treats different ailments in the body. In the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), there are 2,000 acupuncture points which are indentified that connects passages called meridians. These passages conduct vital energy through the body. This vital energy is also called qi, pronounced as chee in Chinese.
Acupuncture with IVF
IVF treatment was used in the early 1980's, but in many cases the treatment still did not produce successful pregnancies. Success rate in IVF treatment can only reach as high as 50%. Success rate depends on the woman's age, production of eggs, causes of infertility and the performance of the clinic as well as that of the physician who handles the treatment.
The known negative effect on reproduction is stress. A patient believes that some kind of intervention that would make her relax can produce good results. Acupuncture with IVF has been applied as a technique to produce effective results for women and as a way to increase the chances of having a successful pregnancy. It has been observed to induce certain changes in hormone levels and has direct effects to the autonomic nervous system since the needles that were inserted to the meridian optimizes endometrial receptivity of the patient.
Effects of Acupuncture with IVF
Researchers discovered that acupuncture with IVF during IVF cycle can dramatically improve the chances by 20% of a woman getting pregnant. With the application of Traditional Chinese Medicine principles, acupuncture points along the pathways that have been stimulated and treated cause biological effects. The immediate effects cause the uterus to relax upon the transfer of energy. Based on some studies, there are contractions in the uterus that could force out the embryos that were transferred to the uterus. If these contractions were reduced by acupuncture with IVF, the success rate for IVF pregnancy can improve. However, this analysis may not yet hold true since there were studies that have been conducted with several IVF patients that acupuncture with IVF did not reduce contractions in the uterus.
Other possible effects of acupuncture with IVF show that it helps improve the blood flow along the arteries of the uterus of a woman. Acupuncture with IVF may also affect the pituitary and ovarian hormone levels. However, in contrast to other studies, most patients who have acupuncture with IVF were not cured of their individual problems such as miscarriages and high level of follicle-stimulating hormones (FSH). There was no effective response with acupuncture with IVF.
Acupuncture can produce vital energy and stimulate conditions but the influence of Acupuncture with IVF still needs to be studied further.