Acupuncture appears to significantly impact ovulation and pregnancy rates and positively alter hormone levels in women diagnosed with luteinized unruptured follicle syndrome.
A comprehensive search across eight databases and a clinical trials database was performed, leading to the discovery of fifteen relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from China that studied the effects of acupuncture on females with luteinized unruptured follicle syndrome. These trials provided data on both primary and secondary clinical outcomes. The study employed Forest plots to visualize the aggregate data and conducted sensitivity analyses for verifying the robustness of the findings. Special attention was given to understanding if the number of acupoints used per treatment influenced the primary outcomes by running a subgroup analysis.
Deeper analysis of the amassed data provided evidence that acupuncture intervention drastically enhanced ovulation and pregnancy rates when compared to control subjects. Furthermore, it was noted that acupuncture treatments improved the levels of significant hormones- luteinizing hormone, estradiol, and progesterone, and ameliorated the resistance index and pulsatility index values of the ovarian artery. A noticeable difference in ovulation rates was observed with respect to the number of acupoints stimulated during treatment. Despite these, extensive analyses affirmed the solidity of the results and no significant publication bias was found across the studies.
