Acupuncture and pregnancy by IVF
Course of acupuncture (akupunktur) may raise success of IVF treatment by 65%
Women who undergo IVF increase their chances of pregnancy if they are also treated with acupuncture, a new analysis suggests.
The benefits may be large — a 65 per cent increase in the chance of becoming pregnant, and a 91 per cent increase in the number of live births.
The results have emerged from a meta-analysis, a technique in which the results of many previous trials are pooled. A team led by Dr Eric Manheimer of the University of Maryland School of Medicine scanned medical literature for trials that attempted to measure the effect of acupuncture on IVF success.
They found 108 trials, but rejected all but seven because of defects of methodology — such as that acupuncture was not administered within a day of IVF or was used as a form of pain relief. The seven they retained, all published since 2002 and carried out in four Western countries, involved 1,366 women. In all the trials the women were given acupuncture immediately before or after the test-tube embryo was transferred to their wombs. All the acupuncture sessions lasted 25 to 30 minutes.
In British Medical Journal online, the team reports that almost all these trials reported positive findings. Taken together they showed a 65 per cent increase in establishment of pregnancy, an 87 per cent increase in continuing pregnancy, and a 91 per cent increase in live births.
All these results were statistically significant, measured by the criterion of odds of less than one in 20 of having come about by chance. But the team says that these figures overestimate the benefits, since success rates even without acupuncture are relatively high.
It is more realistic, the report says, to measure the results on a “number needed to treat” basis. This is the method that assesses how many women need to be treated to achieve a single extra pregnancy — and the answer is ten.
Even on this basis it is a striking result, especially as nobody has any idea why acupuncture (akupunktur) should be having this effect.
Professor Edzard Ernst of Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth said: “On the face of it these results sound fantastic. I would, however, be very cautious as much of the observed effect could be due to a placebo response. IVF may not seem to be ‘placebo-prone’ but it probably is: if women expect it to be helpful they are more relaxed which, in turn, would affect pregnancy rates.”
Success rates in IVF vary greatly from clinic to clinic, and the analysis found that where success rates were high the benefit of acupuncture (akupunktur) was smaller and not statistically significant. That may mean that acupuncture (akupunktur) was simply a “marker” for clinics where a lot of care is taken to see that women are calm and relaxed.
The team suggests that acupuncture (akupunktur) may influence the menstrual cycle, stimulate blood flow to the womb, or produce mood chemicals that reduce the stress response to IVF. From the Times.

Behandling af barnløshed med akupunktur

Kursus med Qunhui Mao og Hanne Udengaard

Målsætning: at gøre den praktiserende akupunktør i stand til at indgå i den konventionelle barnløshedsbehandling, samt til at kunne behandle de tilstande, der hæmmer evnen til at blive gravid.

Underviserne:

Qunhui Mao

– akupunktør, foredragsholder og tidl. ass. professor v. Beijing University of TCM, Kina

Qunhui Mao virkede i en årrække som associate professor ved Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine med gynækologi som speciale. Hun har været supervisor i videnskabelige studier af akupunkturs virkning i forbindelse med IVF (reagensglas-befrugtning).

Hun er en af de få i Danmark som har en 8-årigt universitetsuddannelse indenfor både kinesisk medicin og konventionel medicin og har 20 års erfaring i akupunkturpraksis.

I de sidste 8 år har hun behandlet mange barnløse klienter med stor succes. Tilsammen udgør disse behandlinger ca. 90 % af hendes daglige praksis. I Danmark har hun 5 gange tidligere afholdt kurser over emnet "Akupunktur og Barnløshed" med gode tilbagemeldinger.

Da der har været en del efterspørgsel på nye kurser, vil Qunhui afholde kurset på ny i en opdateret version.

Hanne Udengaard

– forskningssygeplejerske på Herlev Sygehus’ fertilitetsklinik

Uddannet som sygeplejerske i 1980. De sidste 17 år har hun været ansat i Fertilitetsklinikken på Herlev Sygehus. Her har hun været forskningssygeplejerske de sidste 9 år. Hun har en bred viden indenfor fertilitetsområdet og bruger en del af sin tid på at undervise patienter og kolleger.

Hanne Udengaard leverer en solid, grundlæggende indføring i vestlige, medicinske fremgangsmåder og terminologi i forbindelse med fertilitetsbehandling i det etablerede system.

Emnerne for kurset vil være:

Akupunktur:

- Akupunktur ifbm kunstig befrugtning og naturlig graviditet

- Anvendelsen af elektro-akupunktur i behandlingen af barnløshed

- Behandling af PCOS

- Behandling af endometriose

Fysiologi/patologi:

- Den endokrine regulering af reproduktionssystemet – kvindens
fertilitet.

- Hormonpræparater og deres anvendelse ved barnløshedsbehandling

- PCOS

Tid: 2010: 20/3 kl. 9:30 – 17:30 og 21/3 9:00 – 16:00

Sted: Tårnstudiet, Vesterbrogade 40, 5. t.v., København V. Om Tårnstudiet: Tårnstudiet er et gammelt teaterstudie nær Det Ny Teater med en helt speciel atmosfære.

Fuld forplejningen.

Pris: 3000,00 kr. pr. deltager.

Tilmelding via e-mail: info@mao.dk

Betalingsbetingelser: depositum 500,00 ved tilmelding, restbeløb senest d. 1. marts 2010.

Kontonummer: reg.nr. 3106 kontonr. 4280129399 (Danske Bank)

Kontaktperson: Qunhui Mao og Morten Prins. Tlf. 33 26 33 08 og 22 63 80 15

Course of acupuncture (akupunktur) may raise success of IVF treatment by 65%

Women who undergo IVF increase their chances of pregnancy if they are also treated with acupuncture, a new analysis suggests.

The benefits may be large — a 65 per cent increase in the chance of becoming pregnant, and a 91 per cent increase in the number of live births.

The results have emerged from a meta-analysis, a technique in which the results of many previous trials are pooled. A team led by Dr Eric Manheimer of the University of Maryland School of Medicine scanned medical literature for trials that attempted to measure the effect of acupuncture on IVF success.

They found 108 trials, but rejected all but seven because of defects of methodology — such as that acupuncture was not administered within a day of IVF or was used as a form of pain relief. The seven they retained, all published since 2002 and carried out in four Western countries, involved 1,366 women. In all the trials the women were given acupuncture immediately before or after the test-tube embryo was transferred to their wombs. All the acupuncture sessions lasted 25 to 30 minutes.

In British Medical Journal online, the team reports that almost all these trials reported positive findings. Taken together they showed a 65 per cent increase in establishment of pregnancy, an 87 per cent increase in continuing pregnancy, and a 91 per cent increase in live births.

All these results were statistically significant, measured by the criterion of odds of less than one in 20 of having come about by chance. But the team says that these figures overestimate the benefits, since success rates even without acupuncture are relatively high.

It is more realistic, the report says, to measure the results on a “number needed to treat” basis. This is the method that assesses how many women need to be treated to achieve a single extra pregnancy — and the answer is ten.

Even on this basis it is a striking result, especially as nobody has any idea why acupuncture (akupunktur) should be having this effect.

Professor Edzard Ernst of Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth said: “On the face of it these results sound fantastic. I would, however, be very cautious as much of the observed effect could be due to a placebo response. IVF may not seem to be ‘placebo-prone’ but it probably is: if women expect it to be helpful they are more relaxed which, in turn, would affect pregnancy rates.”

Success rates in IVF vary greatly from clinic to clinic, and the analysis found that where success rates were high the benefit of acupuncture (akupunktur)  was smaller and not statistically significant. That may mean that acupuncture  (akupunktur) was simply a “marker” for clinics where a lot of care is taken to see that women are calm and relaxed.

The team suggests that acupuncture (akupunktur) may influence the menstrual cycle, stimulate blood flow to the womb, or produce mood chemicals that reduce the stress response to IVF. Fra the Times.

Akupunktur og IVF. Det er vigtigt at vælge en akupunktør, der har erfaring imed barnløshed samt både akupunktur og IVF behandling så at dine IVF behandlinger forbederes og lever op til de forskelige udelandske forsøg.

Acupuncture could boost the chances of a woman becoming pregnant after IVF by more than half

The women who underwent acupuncture were 65 % more likely to become pregnant

The effect is so significant that just 10 women needed to combine the treatments for one to conceive who would not otherwise have done so, a study showed.

It is not clear how acupuncture affects fertility. However, IVF is extremely stressful and it could be that the relaxation involved in the therapy helps, experts said.

The findings come from a review of seven scientific trials, involving a total of 1,366 women of all ages, published in the British Medical Journal today.

The study looked at pregnancy rates among women having acupuncture around the time that the embryo was transferred to the womb during IVF.

It compared the results with those given a fake acupuncture treatment and women who had no extra therapy. Acupuncture, IVF, pregnant.

acupuncture may be a cost-effective additional therapy in IVF because it is so cheap compared with repeated cycles of fertility treatment.

One in seven couples will experience difficulty conceiving. The average cost of one cycle of IVF in Britain is about £4,000, including drugs.

Around 32,000 patients a year have IVF with about 11,000 babies born annually as a result, accounting for one per cent of births.

A previous study suggested that women having acupuncture were actually less likely to get pregnant.

However, this was based on patients who sought out the therapy on their own rather than being randomly assigned as part of a trial, meaning they were probably resorting to it because their chances of conceiving were already poor.

Prof Edzard Ernst, of the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, said: "On the face of it, these results sound fantastic. I would, however, be very cautious as much of the observed effect could be due to a placebo response.

"IVF may not seem to be 'placebo-prone' but it probably is. If women expect it to be helpful, they are more relaxed which, in turn, would affect pregnancy rates."

The research paper said if the results were largely down to a placebo effect then there would have been increased pregnancy rates among the women who thought they were receiving real acupuncture, but were actually receiving a sham therapy, where the needles were placed at random. However, this was not the case.

Acupuncture, IVF, pregnant.

By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor, The Telegraph

Acupuncture May Aid In Vitro Fertilization