None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Recent research has suggested that acupuncture may help to increase pregnancy and live birth rates for women undergoing an embryo transfer during assisted reproductive technology. However, there are still many questions to be answered, and there remains a need for a larger well designed study to see whether acupuncture really does help with increasing pregnancy and live birth rates when used with IVF treatment. Acupuncture is a part of traditional Chinese Medicine, and involves the insertion of very fine needles into specific acupuncture points. This study examines the use acupuncture in improving the proportion of women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Women undergoing IVF treatment who are less than 43 years of age and undergoing a fresh IVF or ICSI cycle will be invited to participate in the study. Women who agree to be part of this study will receive acupuncture or sham acupuncture (the placement of needles into points that are not true acupuncture points) in addition to their usual IVF care. Those women wishing to be part of the study but not receive the acupuncture or sham acupuncture can also participate though completing questionnaires.
Interventions
Acupuncture will be administered on day 6-8 of the IVF cycle. The scheduling of this single appointment will be based on their scheduled visit to the IVF Centre. This treatment will take one hour. In addition, two treatments will be given on the day of the embryo transfer. The duration of these two treatments will be 30 minutes respectively, and will take place immediately before and after the embryo transfer.
The first treatment will be individualised based on their TCM diagnosis, plus cor
Acupuncture will be administered on day 6-8 of the IVF cycle. The scheduling of this single appointment will be based on their scheduled visit to the IVF Centre. This treatment will take one hour. In addition, two treatments will be given on the day of the embryo transfer. The duration of these two treatments will be 30 minutes respectively, and will take place immediately before and after the embryo transfer. The first treatment will be individualised based on their TCM diagnosis, plus core points Stomach 29, Conception vessel 4, Conception vessel 6, Spleen 6, Spleen 10.These points were selected from a consensus process undertaken with international experts. The points administered on the day of the embryo transfer include: CV4, ST29, LR3, SP8, SP10 and one of the following (Yintang, PC6, HT7), GV20, KD3, ST36, SP6, PC6.
Sponsors
University of Western Sydney
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 42 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Women aged less than 43 years, undergoing a fresh IVF or ICSI cycle.
Exclusion criteria
Women undergoing a frozen ET, previous randomisation to this trial, planning pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or receiving donor eggs, or having current acupuncture use.
Outcome results
None listed