The role of acupuncture in in vitro fertilization: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
OBJECTIVE
In recent years, acupuncture has become more and more popular in the management of subfertility. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of acupuncture during in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment on the outcomes of clinical pregnancy in published randomized studies.


METHODS
This is a systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources used were MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Knowledge and the Chinese Biomedical Database.


RESULTS
There was no statistically significant difference between the acupuncture group and no acupuncture (intervention) controls around the time of embryo transfer (ET; risk ratio, RR, 1.24, 95% confidence interval, CI, 1.02-1.50) or in unblinded trials, trials blinded to physicians and double-blind trials (95% CI 1.26-1.88, 0.82-1.33 and 0.89-1.25, respectively). This was also the case when comparing acupuncture with sham acupuncture controls around the time of ET (RR, 1.03, 95% CI 0.87-1.22) or when restricting to unblinded trials, trials blinded to physicians and double-blind trials (95% CI 0.80-2.02, 0.82-1.18 and 0.77-1.17, respectively). There was a statistically significant difference when performed at 30 min after ET and implantation phase (RR 1.76, 95% CI 1.22-2.55). There was also a statistically significant difference when performed at follicle phase and 25 min before and after ET (RR 1.56, 95% CI 1.04-2.33).


CONCLUSIONS
Our study showed that acupuncture did not significantly improve the IVF clinical pregnancy rate when performed only at the time of ET, while we found pooled benefit of acupuncture for IVF when performed at follicle phase and 25 min before and after ET, as well as 30 min after ET and implantation phase.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Chunjuan
C
Shen
Manxiang
M
Wu
Defeng
D
Shu
Xiaojie
X
Zhao
Ying
Y
Gao
D026881:Acupuncture; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004624:Embryo Transfer / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro / Q000379:methods*; D005498:Follicular Phase; D006801:Humans; D016239:MEDLINE; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome