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Saw this article and thought someone may be interested....
Health News Acupuncture May Help Women Conceive
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE,
AP
(Feb. 8) — It sounds far-fetched - sticking
needles in women to help them become
pregnant - but a scientific review suggests
that acupuncture might improve the odds
of conceiving if done right before or after
embryos are placed in the womb.
The surprising finding is far from proven,
and there are only theories for how and why
acupuncture might work. However, some
fertility specialists say they are hopeful that
this relatively inexpensive and simple treatment
might ultimately prove to be a useful
add-on to traditional methods.
“It is being taken more seriously across our
specialty,” and more doctors are training in
it, said Dr. William Gibbons, who runs a
fertility clinic in Baton Rouge, La., and is
past president of the Society for Assisted
Reproductive Technology. “I have not seen
proof ... but we wouldn’t mind at all” if it
turned out to work, he said.
The analysis was led by Eric Manheimer, a
researcher at the University of Maryland
School of Medicine, and paid for by a federal
agency, the National Center for Complementary
and Alternative Medicine. Results
were published Friday in the British medical
journal, BMJ.
Acupuncture involves placing very thin
needles at specific points on the body to try
to control pain and reduce stress. In fertility
treatment, it is thought to increase blood
flow to the uterus, relax the cervix and inhibit
“fight or flight” stress hormones that
can make it tougher for an embryo to implant,
Manheimer said.
The analysis pools results from seven studies
on 1,366 women in the United States,
Germany, Australia and Denmark who are
having in vitro fertilization, or IVF. It involves
mixing sperm and eggs in a lab dish
to create embryos that are placed in the
womb.
Women were randomly assigned to receive
IVF alone, IVF with acupuncture within a
day of embryo transfer, or IVF plus sham
acupuncture, in which needles were placed
too shallowly or in spots not thought to
matter.
Individually, only three of the studies
found acupuncture beneficial, three found
a trend toward benefit and one found no
benefit. When results of these smaller studies
were pooled, researchers found that the
odds of conceiving went up about 65 percent
for women given acupuncture.
Experts warn against focusing on that
number, because this type of analysis with
pooled results is not proof that acupuncture
helps at all, let alone by how much. IVF
results in pregnancy about 35 percent of
the time. Adding acupuncture might boost
that to around 45 percent, the researchers
said.
The authors include doctors from the
Netherlands and Georgetown University in
Washington, D.C. One is an acupuncturist
but had no role in any studies that were analyzed.
The American Society for Reproductive
Medicine has no policy on acupuncture.
“There’s been a lot of conflicting research”
on its usefulness, said spokeswoman
Eleanor Nicoll.
“It looks like, from the body of evidence out
there, that some patients benefit,” said Dr.
James Grifo, head of the infertility program
at New York University.
However, Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, director of
infertility treatment at New York-Presbyterian
Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center,
said other studies, reported at recent
medical meetings and not included in the
published analysis, did not find it helped.
“The jury is still out,” he said, but added,
“It’s unlikely that acupuncture does any
harm.”
Dr. Ann Trevino, a 37-year-old family
physician who recently moved to Houston,
is pregnant, and a believer. She had three
unsuccessful pregnancy attempts with intrauterine
insemination before trying
acupuncture with IVF at a fertility clinic in
San Antonio where she used to live.
“I had been reading about acupuncture,
probably like every other patient on the Internet.
I was just willing to do anything possible
to improve our chances,” she said.
With acupuncture, “I just felt very warm
and relaxed” when the embryos were
placed.
Dr. Francisco Arredondo, who runs Reproductive
Medicine Associates of Texas where
Trevino was treated, said he started offering
acupuncture in October, after patients
requested it and because some studies suggested
it helped.
Acupuncturist Kirsten Karchmer said she
places about a dozen needles in the ears,
hands, feet, lower legs, abdomen and sometimes
the lower back. It costs $500 a month
for treatments twice a week, and patients
typically go for three months, she said.
IVF costs around $12,000 per attempt, so a
treatment that improves its effectiveness
might save money in the long run, Manheimer
said.
On the Net:
http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/ivf.pdf
2008-02-08 06:34:26
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