The Hour

Couples who are trying to have a baby are probably wasting their time if they are using therapies such as acupuncture to get pregnant, according to new guidelines.

The British Fertility Society has released information stating that there is “no evidence” that using herbal medicine or acupuncture can improve the success of assisted conception.

The conclusion was reached after a detailed review was carried out into all published randomised controlled trials, looking at how effective Chinese herbal medicine acupuncture therapies are, when used alongside fertility treatment IVF.

The study found there are no published randomised controlled trials on the effectiveness of using Chinese herbal medicines in conjunction with fertility treatment – so there is no evidence to support its use at this time.

In terms of acupuncture, studies, which consisted of 14 trials using 2670 people, showed that no matter when acupuncture was given it didn’t have any effect on birth rate, pregnancy rate or miscarriage rate, between patients that had received acupuncture and those that had not.

For some time now alternative therapies such as these have been used by couples desperate to have a baby, so this news will come as a huge blow.

Speaking about the results, Professor Adam Balen, the chair of the British Fertility Society’s Policy and Practice Committee, said: “Following a thorough analysis of the evidence, the British Fertility Society concludes that there is currently no evidence that acupuncture or Chinese herbal medicine, when used in conjunction with assisted fertility treatment, have any beneficial effect on live birth rate, pregnancy rate or miscarriage rate.  Patients should be made aware of this fact before commencing treatment.

“Furthermore, in the studies included in this analysis, there is a great deal of discrepancy in the experimental design and the acupuncture technique used.

"Any future randomised controlled trials in this area need to ensure that they use a standardised acupuncture method, have a large sample size and include adequate controls to account for any placebo effects.”