Here at Tao of Women Clinic, we are happily supporting our couples while on their journeys with Assisted Reproductive Technology. We support all of you while you are working with your Fertility Clinic. We offer PRE and POST IVF FET ACUPUNCTURE appointments here at our clinic providing a very safe, and beautiful place where we can keep your feet warm, your stress low and your partner comfortable…all while looking up at the stars listening to soft music!
Traditionally, adding acupuncture to FET transfer appointments has been done at the Fertility Clinic 25 minutes prior to and 25 minutes after FET, but through my years of experience as a fertility acupuncturist and utilizing recent research, the increased success rate you get through adding acupuncture on-site, immediately after transfer is JUST as successful done off-site at our acupuncture clinic as long as it is done within 1 day either side of your FET. Here is the study that confirms this:
Effects of acupuncture on rates of pregnancy and live birth among women undergoing in vitro fertilisation: systematic review and meta-analysis.
Manheimer E1, Zhang G, Udoff L, Haramati A, Langenberg P, Berman BM, Bouter LM.
Author information
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate whether acupuncture improves rates of pregnancy and live birth when used as an adjuvant treatment to embryo transfer in women undergoing in vitro fertilisation.
DESIGN:
Systematic review and meta-analysis.
DATA SOURCES:
Medline, Cochrane Central, Embase, Chinese Biomedical Database, hand searched abstracts, and reference lists. Review methods Eligible studies were randomised controlled trials that compared needle acupuncture administered within one day of embryo transfer with sham acupuncture or no adjuvant treatment, with reported outcomes of at least one of clinical pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, or live birth. Two reviewers independently agreed on eligibility; assessed methodological quality; and extracted outcome data. For all trials, investigators contributed additional data not included in the original publication (such as live births). Meta-analyses included all randomised patients.
DATA SYNTHESIS:
Seven trials with 1366 women undergoing in vitro fertilisation were included in the meta-analyses. There was little clinical heterogeneity. Trials with sham acupuncture and no adjuvant treatment as controls were pooled for the primary analysis. Complementing the embryo transfer process with acupuncture was associated with significant and clinically relevant improvements in clinical pregnancy (odds ratio 1.65, 95% confidence interval 1.27 to 2.14; number needed to treat (NNT) 10 (7 to 17); seven trials), ongoing pregnancy (1.87, 1.40 to 2.49; NNT 9 (6 to 15); five trials), and live birth (1.91, 1.39 to 2.64; NNT 9 (6 to 17); four trials). Because we were unable to obtain outcome data on live births for three of the included trials, the pooled odds ratio for clinical pregnancy more accurately represents the true combined effect from these trials rather than the odds ratio for live birth. The results were robust to sensitivity analyses on study validity variables. A prespecified subgroup analysis restricted to the three trials with the higher rates of clinical pregnancy in the control group, however, suggested a smaller non-significant benefit of acupuncture (odds ratio 1.24, 0.86 to 1.77). CONCLUSIONS:
Current preliminary evidence suggests that acupuncture given with embryo transfer improves rates of pregnancy and live birth among women undergoing in vitro fertilisation.____________________________________________________________
So, if you have an upcoming IVF transfer and you are wanting to become a patient of Tao of Women Clinic, please click here to schedule your free 15-minute phone consultation. If you are already a patient of Tao of Women Clinic, we will schedule your FET when you and your clinic are ready to transfer!
