Acupuncture as a complementary therapy to IVF may increase pregnancy rates while also reducing pain and anxiety but may possibly raise early miscarriage rates.
In the study methodology, five English databases were thoroughly searched until June 20, 2024. The focus was on trials where manual acupuncture or electro-acupuncture was used solely as a complementary treatment in the experimental groups, with control interventions being sham acupuncture or a blank (wait-list) control. Various analysis methods were carried out, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses, trial sequential analyses, meta-influence analyses, meta-regression and subgroup-analyses. Publication bias evaluations were made with Egger's and trim and fill tests, and a quality assessment of the results was carried out. In total, 42 trials from 37 published articles, with a total of 7400 participants, were included in the analysis.
The results showed that, compared to sham acupuncture or blank controls, acupuncture led to significant improvements in biochemical pregnancy rate and clinical pregnancy rates. Acupuncture also had a positive effect on pain management during surgery and reduced anxiety levels. Even though minor acupuncture-specific adverse events were reported in eight of the 42 trials, primarily mild to moderate local reactions, a significantly higher early miscarriage rate was observed in the acupuncture groups, warranting caution.
