Effect Of Acupuncture On Effective Factors Related To Fertility On Infertile Patients Treated By ICSI

Introduction:Acupuncture is a method of treatment which dates back at least 3000 years. It is an integral part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Later applying this method on infertile men and women was successful; it was paid a high attention on acupuncture to put in progress as an effective treatment and used all over the world. Previous studies have been shown that repeated low-frequency EA treatments induced regular ovulations in more than one third of the women affected by PCOS and normalized endocrine and neuroendocrine parameters without any negative side effects.Objective:This study was designed to determine the influence of acupuncture on effective factors related to fertility on infertile patients treated by ICSI.Methods:From 120 infertile women(with unexplained infertility or caused by male factor)who were underwent ICSI treatment 60 patients were affected by electro-acupuncture and moxibustion for three months (twice a week) and others in control group only treated by ICSI process.In this clinical study we investigated the numbers of follicles, oocytes, embryos and their quality mediated by ICSI, and also the pregnancy rate and miscarriage percentage were investigated.Results:Acupuncture's efficacy on the number of the patients'follicles:the numbers of follicles in the experimental group were a little more than the control group because they had this advantage of receiving acupuncture treatments besides the ICSI.(p<0.05)Acupuncture's efficacy on the number of patient's oocyte:The P-Value of the test 0.007(p<0.01) between the two experimental and control groups shows a strong meaningful difference at 0.05 level of significance between two groups(p<0.01). Acupuncture's efficacy on the number of patient's Embryo:The P-Value of less than 0.001(p<0.01) shows a meaningful difference between these two groups. Based on these P-Value and-3.417 differences in the mean we can say that acupuncture can absolutely increase the number of Embryo in the patients who are under the ICSI treatment.The acupuncture's effect on quality of Embryo (grade I):In the control group the mean of grade I is 2.13±370.1 and in the experimental group is 4.07±0.331. As you can clearly see the mean of the grade I in the experimental group is more the control group.There is a meaningful difference between the experimental and controlled groups. Based on the P-value and the-1.943 mean differences we can conclude that acupuncture can increase the grade I Embryo.(p<0.01)Acupuncture's efficacy on the grade II of Embryo:The mean of the gradeⅡin control group is 1.65±0.209 and in experimental group it is 2.71±0.352.Based on the statistical results we can say that the mean ofⅡgrade in the experimental group is more than the control group.(p<0.05)Acupuncture's efficacy on successful pregnancy:The successful pregnancy in patients who are under acupuncture treatments is more than control group. The results have incredibly increased from 25% to 61.7%.The Miscarriage percentage show a meaningful difference between two experimental and controlled groups. Moreover the difference says that acupuncture can successfully decrease the probability of Miscarriage.Although The percentage of miscarriage in Experimental group is 16.21%, in Control group is 26.6%.Conclusion:The results suggested that acupuncture has positive effects on the numbers of follicles, oocytes, Embryo and its quality. In addition the rate of pregnancy was higher in patients who were affected by acupuncture and the miscarriage rate decrease in experimental group.