The Effect of Complementary and Alternative Medicine on Subfertile Women with In Vitro Fertilization

Table 1

Summary of randomized studies of the effect of acupuncture on IVF outcomes.

Study ID	Design	Sample size	Interventions	Outcomes	Limitation
20	RCT	273	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: no intervention	Treatment arm: PR, 39% [37 of 95]; Control arm: PR, 26% [21 of 87]	Not mentioned blindness; Small sample size
19	RCT	160	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: no intervention	Treatment arm: PR, 42.5% [34 of 80]; Control arm: PR, 26.3% [21 of 80]^※	Not mentioned blindness; Small sample size
21	Single-blind, RCT	228	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: no intervention	Treatment arm: PR, 31% [33 of 107]; Control arm: PR, 23% [26 of 114]	Single-blind trial; Small sample size
22	RCT	225	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: no intervention	Treatment arm: PR, 33.6% [39 of 116]; Control arm: PR, 15.6% [17 of 109]^※	Not mentioned blindness; Small sample size
37	Single-blind, RCT	150	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: no intervention	Treatment arm: PR, 50% [39 of 78]; Control arm: PR, 42.6% [29 of 68]	Single-blind trial; Small sample size
59	RCT	44	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: no intervention	Treatment arm: PR, 30% [9 of 30]; Control arm: PR, 28.6% [4 of 14]	Not mentioned blindness; Small sample size
35	Double-blind, RCT	370	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: placebo acupuncture intervention	Treatment arm: PR, 55.1 [102 of 185]^#; Control arm: PR, 43.8% [81 of 185]
36	Double-blind, RCT	226	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: placebo acupuncture intervention	There were no significant differences in outcomes of PR, OPR, LBR, and IR in the placebo acupuncture group than in the real acupuncture group	Small sample size
34	Double-blinded, RCT	635	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: placebo acupuncture intervention	There were no significant differences in outcomes of OPR and LBR and IR between the placebo acupuncture group and the real acupuncture group
39	RCT	416	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: no intervention	There was no significantly increased PR in the acupuncture group than in the control group	Not mentioned blindness
44	Double-blinded, RCT	160	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: placebo acupuncture intervention	CPR had no significant difference between the true acupuncture group and the sham acupuncture group	Small sample size
32	RCT	66	Treatment arm: acupuncture intervention; Control arm: no intervention	The fertilization rate, cleavage rate, and the rate of high-quality embryos were all significantly higher in the acupuncture group than in the control group	Not mentioned blindness; Small sample size

Note: RCT: randomized clinical trial; PR: pregnancy rate; OPR: ongoing pregnancy rate; LBR: live birth rate; IR: implantation rate; FR: fertilization rate; CR: cleavage rate.^※𝑃<0.05 versus treatment arm; ^#𝑃<0.05 versus control arm.