ACUPUNCTURE DURING IVF
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Research on acupuncture during IVF cycles can be confusing and overwhelming (not to mention add to your pressure). There are SO many studies! Your acupuncturist might have a strong opinion — so might your RE and your fertility friends. Should you do it on transfer day or not? Do you need it for your lining thickness or not? How many visits should you aim for and when?
In this video, we're going to break down the data and most common protocols and figure out how to land on the exact right kind of acupuncture for YOU!
In this video you’ll learn.
The main studies people talk about (the research)
How acupuncture during IVF is most often done (the protocols)
Why I think getting holistic and the one big study — not to mention my own history of great IVF outcomes — are your best bet
Say so-long to feeling pressured and overwhelmed by studies and opinions and hello to finding your acupuncture sweet-spot that will really deliver.
Warmly,
Nicole
Nicole Lange
LICENSED ACUPUNCTURIST
HOLISTIC FERTILITY EDUCATOR
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I'm Nicole Lange, acupuncturist, holistic fertility educator, and creator of The Baby You Want online fertility program and this video covers what you need to know about acupuncture during IVF.
In this video we're going to succinctly cover what the research says, and I'm talking all the research, not just the studies your acupuncturist will tell you about.
We'll also talk about how acupuncture during IVF is most typically done, and we'll cover my own personal experience and take on the best, big picture holistic considerations for you to think about as you decide if acupuncture should be a part of your IVF cycle and transfer and how or not.
Now, before I jump into all the studies and the statistics, I want to give you a reason to stick with me until the end. And I want to share why I think you should listen to my opinion because I am well aware that there are many studies and strong opinions and lots of personal experiences out there. And you, of course, want to do everything in your power to help your IVF succeed.
I get that.
So here's why I think you should listen to my opinion.
Many years ago, I was pulled aside by a nurse manager at an IVF clinic. This clinic had been gracious enough to allow us acupuncturists to use an onsite room to treat patients right before and right after their embryo transfers. And they'd started offering this option about a year and a half prior.
So the nurse manager pulls me aside and says, "I just got to ask you Nicole, what do you do that's different than the other acupuncturists?".
And I was both very impressed that she noticed anything and a little bit confused.
Now, in truth, I do a ton that's pretty different than most other acupuncturists.
I spend more time per visit with people in general. I don't do set protocols often.
And prior to every single transfer I'm going to be a part of I spend at least 30 to 45 minutes walking women and couples through ways to make their transfer easier, the science and the timing of implantation, plus ways to cope with all the pressure and the unknown of that two week wait, and hopefully beyond too.
And I also try to add lots of layers to make transfers feel more special and personal and less clinical when I'm there.
But I really didn't see how she would possibly have observed even half of this. So as I tried to figure out what she was exactly getting at, I said, "Well, I am super education focused. That's a pretty big difference. Why do you ask?"
And then she kind of dropped a shocking little secret on me. She said ever since we agreed to let you acupuncturists use rooms here, we've been tracking you all. Bth as a group and as individuals. Dun dun dun.
And everyone else has about the same success rates, which is good, but yours is higher. We just figured you had to be doing something different and I wanted to ask.
So stick with me. I know this video will give you everything you need so you can advocate for, and totally get what I know is the very best VF acupuncture.
Whenever I'm looking at fertility research as a whole, I like to look for recent studies and I like to look for meta-analyses because these are the studies that pool together all the prior studies on a given topic and see what the overall consensus, or lack of consensus, is.
And as luck would have it, we have two fairly recent meta-analyses that were published in 2019 on acupuncture and IVF. So let's start with those.
The first of these studies analyzed data from 27 prior studies and over 6,000 participants and showed a few main things.
Number one, acupuncture seems to improve clinical pregnancy rates in IVF cycles.
Number two acupuncture seems to be most beneficial in cases where there's a history of prior unsuccessful IVF attempts or poor prognoses.
And number three, the number of acupuncture treatments is a potential factor in overall success.
This analysis also pointed out that acupuncture doesn't increase the risk of miscarriage, which is also great to know.
The second meta-analysis included 20 studies with over 4,000 participants. And it basically concluded the exact same things, but added a little bit more nuance. It also said that acupuncture seems to be even more helpful when it's also done during ovarian stimulation and again in the window of implantation after transfer.
So, so far, it looks pretty good for acupuncture. That said, if we look back further through the history of IVF acupuncture research, many earlier studies were pretty darn polarized.
Some studies show ginormous, kind of questionably huge benefits, like acupuncture improves your odds by 60%. But many, many, many others showed the benefits of acupuncture to be inconclusive or negligible.
Plus, it's really hard to do a well-designed double blind study on acupuncture, so it's also hard to get really good data period. I'm actually going to do another video about that another time.
And, and this is big, there was one study in 2007 where those who got acupuncture were actually less likely to get pregnant. And in this particular study, women were assigned to travel off site to a new-to-them acupuncture clinic, both before and after their transfers, to see a provider they'd never met before that day.
One of the studies authors even said that they strongly suspected that the stress of running around and getting needled by a stranger was more of the root of the decreased success rates precisely because there were so many other studies that show acupuncture either helps, or at least doesn't hurt.
I actually love, love, love this study because to me, as someone who really advocates for individualized custom care, this is such a great example of the benefits of acupuncture being totally erased if it's done in a way that creates a bunch of stress around it. You definitely need to pay attention to this for you and your unique circumstances as you make your best choices.
So, wrapping up the research basics, the bottom line is as of early 2021 as I'm recording this, there have been some studies that have shown acupuncture can improve IVF pregnancy odds greatly, but in general when you look at all the studies together, it's probably reasonable to say acupuncture boosts the odds of clinical pregnancy success rates by somewhere like 5 to 10% safely when it's done from a place of feeling supported and calm and good. But it may be a wash or even decrease success rates in worst case scenarios when acupuncture is really stressing a person out and does not feel good.
The most well-known approach to IVF acupuncture is probably to do the acupuncture within 24 hours prior to doing an embryo transfer, and then often again within 24 hours after an embryo transfer. In more and more places, these treatments are increasingly being offered right at IVF clinics, which is awesome.
As I alluded to. Some studies also include acupuncture leading up, like during stemming or lining prep for FET, and after during the nine or so day wait. This all means that what your particular clinic or acupuncturist or RE might be recommending may be largely dependent on which study they've read and are kind of into.
Some acupuncturists will follow the OG fertility and acupuncture breakthrough study from way back in 1996. It's called the Steiner-Victorin protocol and it says you need a set number of electro-stim acupuncture sessions to improve blood flow to the uterus and to the ovaries ahead of a transfer.
Others are going to be fans of a classic study called the Paulus study, which was done in 2002. This is the one that recommends the specific set of acupuncture points right before and right after embryo transfer.
Interestingly enough, the points are a little odd because they were picked by doctors and not by acupuncturists.
And some other folks are going to be following the work of husband and wife team Paul Magarelli and Diane Cridennda - he's a reproductive endocrinologist, she's an acupuncturist - who say you should get eight or nine acupuncture treatments, period, prior to a transfer.
And there are others, but these are probably the most widely and specifically recommended protocols.
Now, some people will combine these or mix and match these published protocols. But in my opinion and experience, which I'll cover even more in a second, I would argue that the very best holistic treatments are ones that actually use protocols only if they really match the person and the person likes them, but also is not afraid to get more customized when the protocols aren't the perfect fit. Which they rarely are.
The closest study that we can get to that kind of acupuncture during IVF is a 2015 study that concluded something that they called in the study, whole systems acupuncture. Which in this case included individualized, specific acupuncture points, lifestyle, and dietary instructions.
And that beat any one size fits all protocol acupuncture when it came to best IVF outcomes.
In this study, the set acupuncture protocol group had a live birth rate of 50.8% compared with the no acupuncture at all groups, 48.2%. It wasn't much different.
But the whole systems acupuncture folks had a live birth rate of 61.3%. That's 13.1% better live birth rate. And keep in mind when I said 5 to 10% boost earlier, that was pregnancy rates, and this is live birth rates. So this is a high jump and a significant improvement.
And talking about whole systems acupuncture is a pretty great leap into what then I would strongly argue is the very best way to do acupuncture during any IVF cycle.
I go onsite at three different IVF clinics, I'm involved in embryo transfers for right around a hundred couples or women most years, and I've been in business since 2006 which means I have been involved in a fair number of IVF cycles. And here is what I have come to strongly believe.
I will argue with my dying breath, that there is no universal right time to do acupuncture in IVF. Rather there's a right time for each individual person.
There's also no universal right acupuncture points that you have to magically needle. There's just a right set of points for each unique body and person and situation.
And you guessed it, I also strongly strongly believe that there is no right number of acupuncture treatments that's suitable for absolutely everyone. Rather there's going to be a right number for you. And sometimes that right number might be zero or more or less than what a study says and that's okay and can totally work.
I'm guessing there's a decent chance you might be struggling a little bit right now and thinking, "Okay, I hear this Nicole, but my acupuncturist or my RE said I need to do this treatment and told me it has to be electro-stim or this specific set of points or this timing."
And I totally get it. I have had patients come to me with written instructions from their RE on what they should be doing. But I really want you to push back on that and trust that these recommendations are based on the best study data that they've seen, which is great, but that there's still something even better.
That nurse manager confirmed that my methods work better than the studies, albeit in a very unscientific and unpublished way. But the whole system study is the best of the bunch. And that is a published study.
And I said it earlier, but it bears repeating, it is next to impossible to design a good study on truly holistic care because by its very nature, it must be completely customized to be at its best. So although it's super important to know statistics, when you're looking at really reductionistic fertility treatments and odds, making big picture holistic choices based on studies and statistics alone is a really slippery slope.
The bottom line is I do not want you to sign up for what I think is holistically best because of some number that I can give you.
I want you to do it because you want to reclaim your power and intuitively understand that this is good advice and not only improves your fertility, but improves your quality of life and your mental health too. In other words, I want you to choose acupuncture, or not, because you know how to listen to your body and honor what actually serves you and your overall balance.
I want you to feel emboldened to say buh-bye to any pushy, opinionated, judgy, and less-likely-to-work things that other people think you should do, because it's not cool that this happens all the time in infertility and in women's reproductive health care, and we deserve so much better.
Your acupuncturist is probably awesome at acupuncture. Your RE might be amazing at IVF. But no one, no one, knows you better than you. And that should be a part of this equation because it's holistically huge.
How much that's seen and honored at every step of this process is relevant to your IVF outcomes and to your life. Not to mention what we deserve and should demand as women and human beings.
I believe with every fiber of my being that my outcomes are better than those who follow set studies in protocols, because I keep these beliefs in the center of the care I give. That's why word of mouth for my services is so good and why I always have a wait list. And that wait list is a big, big part of why I create free videos like this one, plus an entire digital IVF Insider Guide and my full online fertility program.
I want to teach as many people in as many places how to bring in more of this perspective into their IVF and their infertility journeys as is humanly possible because a pregnancy and a baby are only a part of what's at stake here.
I hope you'll agree, and I hope whatever you choose for your own IVF, it's in alignment with these ideas and that this video makes you feel great about making a choice that is best for you.
Let's wrap this video up.
We just covered the research on acupuncture during IVF cycles.
We also covered how it's most typically done.
And then I threw in my holistic 2 cents on what I think is the very best way to do it and precisely why.
I hope you found this video not only helpful, but inspiring too. If you did, please share it with a fertility friend - word of mouth is the best - and subscribe to this YouTube channel.
I also hope you'll check out more on The Baby You Want Blog and consider signing up for the IVF Insider Guide. This guide covers everything I go over in that pre-transfer visit with my own patients, and so much more, right at the touch of a button. And of course I'd love for you to sign up for the full Baby You Want program while you're at it too.
If you're in the Twin Cities and you want to talk to me about being a part of your IVF cycle, shoot me an email.
Thank you for taking the time and watching this video. Remember, I am always out in the world cheering you on.
