Good article submission.With acupuncture recently being proven to aid in conceiving, especially when combined with conventional medicine, couples who are having trouble getting pregnant should definitely give it a try. https://www.acuphysiohealth.co.nz/
In my opinion this study is comparing sham acu to sham acu. Not very helpful. A major point missed I think is that acupuncturists are practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Chinese herbs, food as medicine based on TCM properties, standard proper diet, movement of body, addressing stress, addressing environment, addressing relationships & also needling, moxa, cupping, gua sha, tui na...are all tools of TCM, commonly used together & individualized. The acupuncture point system is important but not the only factor, certainly not for fertility.
How about the control being usual care? People who do IVF/IUI vs people who get proper Whole System TCM to prepare and support their body for IVF/IUI.
The idea is to prove or disprove improved live birth rates with Whole System TCM added to support the usual care protocol.
Here are some of the major flaws I see with this study:
Bias in blinding
Control group should be a non treatment group vs placebo group. "sham" acu still has an effect
Inadequate amount of treatments and inadequate length of treatments.
Utilizing full system of TCM medicine is industry standard. Abbreviated treatments and did not use full system of medicine in study.
Control "sham" group received a significantly higher amount of a type of embryo transfer that may be associated with higher pregnancy and live birth rates.
Not that this study is perfect either but this could be a start:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4458185/
It is always amusing that any time the NYT has an article with results from medical research, there are always so many people here who comment, “that’s not true because it worked for me!” Or “I know 3 people where it worked for, so it definitely works!” Or other such comments.
I think the problem is also that these articles are limited to reporting aspects of a study, and cannot restate every detail of it (at the end of the day, these articles are meant to be light reading, whereas most medical journal articles are not). So many read these articles and then state that it cannot be valid because of A, B, or C, which often stems down to their personal beliefs. But if such people were to actually read the full study carefully, in many cases it is appropriately addressed.
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Just to interject, I have read the study carefully, the entire study. I purchased it directly from JAMA...not sure many have shelled out the $32.40. I think it would be fair for the NYTimes author to at least state whether or not he read the entire study himself. The NY Times holds a lot of weight with a lot of people. There should be some responsibility to explain in layman's terms to help its readers understand any bias and limitations. Or at the very least, just include some bullet points of what to consider for balance. For example, the methodology of how they came up with the acupuncture points used. Significant concern was expressed by those that participated in creating the "standardized" treatment coined the Delphi method. (The study put together top answers from only 15 acupuncturists through surveymonkey.) In that Delphi study: "A limitation of this study has implications for future research directions. Although the majority of study participants gave agreement to the treatment protocol we would use in our trial there was concern about the low dosage of acupuncture to be used. A view was shared that future protocols should be more pragmatic and in particular allow a greater number of treatments to be administered over a longer period of time, and allow treatments to be individualised. The problem of low dose or sub optimal use of acupuncture used in clinical trials has also been highlighted by several authors."
I was on a waiting list for IVF. The doctors had no clue why I wasn't getting pregnant; I had regular periods and charted them for more than a year and was doing the basal body temp charting and reading mucus signs. I was getting impatient and went to acupuncture treatment on my own. The acupuncturist from Beijing thought I had too many male hormones which also was causing my adult acne. After one cycle, I was pregnant!!! Nothing else changed; I just added in acupunture. I was so happy to call up the IVF people and tell them it wasn't necessary. When I wanted to get pregnant again, I saw the same acupuncturist and after one cycle, I was pregnant. My belief is that acupuncture won't work for everyone, but it sure worked for me. It was incredible and painless.
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I’m an Acupunctirist in NYC. I had many many cases where women after IVF or IUI Did not get pregnant but did after acupuncture.
I had many cases of women getting pregnant after just 3 to 6 cessions.
Many studies show acupuncture works for pregnancy, many fertility Drs recommend acupuncture. It’s just common sense.
Acupuncture promotes circulation of blood and energy to reproductive organs and regulates me atrial cycle.
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On what planet is 105 vs 88 not a significant statistical difference? If the trial was done by some pharma company we would celebrate their success..
" This “meta-analysis” showed that 18.7 percent of the placebo users died during the studies, compared with 15.6 percent of the statin users." https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/health/29well.html
How come if it about statins the difference is meaningful and everybody is pushed to take it as opposed to alternative medicine?
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It’s not based on opinion, it’s based on statistical calculations. In any case, the actual rate of births was the same in both groups - the goal of IVF Is a baby in the long run, not simply a pregnancy. Also, in terms of comparing 105 vs 88, those numbers might be different but they may represent the same percentages of the actual women in the groups.
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The difference in live births was 74 to 72.
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I am interested in acupuncture. However, I am a scientist. If acupuncture works, then it should be relatively easy to prove.
There is a tremendous placebo effect from a caring individual expertly performing a therapeutic regimen. Therefore, I personally would only believe a study that has a sham acupuncture arm.
Can anyone refer any articles where this has been done? Not necessarily for pregnancy related issues, but any medical issue.
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There have been many trials using various versions of sham acupuncture, which is not an easy thing to come up with; there have been debates for years re how to develop a proper sham. Especially because there are styles of acupuncture using the lightest stimulation at the skin, which is often proposed as a sham.
If you search for the Society of Acupuncture Research there should be relevant info on their site.
This article hurts women going through the trauma of trying to get pregnant. If acupuncture, homeopathy, or a placebo from a doctor makes a woman have more hope, or feel better who cares? Write about how to get our society off more unneeded pharmaceuticals.
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1) There is room to write about both.
2) Women should not be conned into doing acupuncture at a desperate time in their life just because they can't tell if it works or not. That's not helping anyone. If I started selling magic rocks to people with cancer an it made them feel false hope, would that be ethical or a con?
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Because it's a waste of money and effort.
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Actually my best friend got pregnant (naturally) after a coupe acupuncture treatments and they tried for 7 or 8 years previously.
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https://triorigin.me/testimonial/endometrium-ivf-pcos/
one of my patient says about this; besides application of acupuncture is only on two fingers, no direct application on organs, quite effective and exceptionally safe!
BELIEVE!
Dr.Dinesh kapur
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Is there an article claiming "Lipitor doesn't work for lowering cholesterol" touting a study where people only took half of two pills? How about that "Cardio exercise doesn't improve heart health" touting a study that people only took two 10 minute walks? If this was the case, I would be highly surprised if the journalist writing about the subject wasn't quick to point it out.
The main researcher in this study was looking at standardized acupuncture points used in women only pre and post embryo transfer. These are not full acupuncture treatments. They are not individualized to the patients TCM diagnosis. The researcher herself admits this major flaw!
"In clinical practice acupuncture treatment is individualised with variation in dosing, including more frequent treatment prior to and during the IVF cycle -- the lack of frequent treatments was a limitation of our trial," says Professor Smith.
Traditional Chinese Medicine does help both men and women with fertility and I agree that it is perposterous to think 2 "treatments" would do very much when people spend years of their lives with poor diet, poor lifestyle, high stress and unaddressed medical conditions. I am not an acupuncturist but I know acupuncture is just a part of Traditional Chinese Medicine and it also isn't cookie cutter. People aren't getting the same treatments or points. From my experience for female related issues, it has generally taken a minimum of 3 months to bring the body and cycles back to balance.
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I echo Tyler’s comment. I practice Chinese Medicine in California. It is preposterous to think that someone having fertility issues only requires a treatment or two to become pregnant.
Totally irresponsible of both the authors of this study and the Times to promote the results of this study as well-designed or signficant.
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I practice Chinese medicine here in New York and I can say now that beginning treatments only one week before you attempt to conceive is not enough. Acupuncture is a modality which stimulates the body’s natural ability toward self repair and healing. This process is one which, in the case of something like infertility, needs to be followed for one to three of months at least in order to see changes (we’re talking about hormonal expression and fundamental physiological shifts). Furthermore, studies such as this are problematic as a representation of the efficacy of acupuncture because, in an effort to control the study as much as possible, they tend to select a set of the same acupuncture points that are used on everyone, but in reality this doesn’t work because people are infertile for many different reasons and not everyone needs the same treatment.
Chinese medicine certainly does have the capacity to increase fertility.
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Please refer me to the carefully performed randomized control trial that provides EVIDENCE to support your claim. Otherwise, this is the best evidence we have. If your claim is that no evidence can prove or disprove your claim, then it must be bogus. A collection of anecdotes from someone who practices Chinese medicine does NOT constitute believable evidence. Treating someone on IVF and seeing they (sometimes) get pregnant fails to account for the possibility they might have gotten pregnant just with the IVF. You have no way of disentangling the two on your own, no matter how convincing your experience feels.
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I think that the point of the above writers is that the study does not provide evidence, because it's methods are faulty and don't reflect individualized treatment and the gradual effect of acupuncture. As a result, there's no solid Western evidence either way. Just because a western scientist does a study does not make that study "the best" evidence if it is flawed.
I've done acupuncture for a few things before, including irregular cycles although I've never tried to get pregnant.
However I can say that on more than one occasion I had an acupuncture treatment designed to help my cycle and got my period two days later. I have PCOS, so my period doesn't just show up randomly. Whether it's placebo or not, I couldn't say; all I can say is that I got needled and then my period showed up, which it doesn't tend to do on its own.
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Periods come on generally about 14 days after ovulation. The ovulation that brought on your period would have occurred 12 days before your acupuncture session. The fact that your period happened to come after acupuncture was likely just a coincidence.
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There's only so much the placebo effect can do.
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