Acupuncture is found to considerably improve reproductive outcomes in women with diminished ovarian reserve undergoing fertility treatments.
In this study, eight databases were investigated to collect data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) until February 28, 2026. The findings were organized into forest plots with one primary (clinical pregnancy rate) and ten secondary outcomes. To test the reliability of these pooled outcomes, sensitivity analyses were performed. Additionally, subgroup analyses were performed to examine if the impact of acupuncture on the primary outcome was linked with the type of acupuncture or the number of acupoints used per treatment. The quality of evidence was assessed using the GRADEpro GDT.
The investigation included 11 RCTs that involved 885 infertile women with diminished ovarian reserve who were undergoing fertility treatments. The collective evidence demonstrated that acupuncture significantly increased the clinical pregnancy rate, live birth rate, embryo implantation rate, number of oocytes retrieved, number of optimal embryos, and the level of E on the day of the hCG trigger. Subgroup analysis additionally supported the efficacy of acupuncture in improving the clinical pregnancy rate. Sensitivity analyses verified the robustness of the pooled outcomes. The certainty level of the evidence for all evaluated outcomes varied from very low to moderate.
