Auricular Acupressure Reduced Psychological Stress And Improves Outcomes Of In Vitro Fertilization Embryo Transfer: A Controlled Study

Objective:To explore effect of auricular acupressure(AA)for infertility patients with anxiety,depression,sleep and the changes of serum cortisol and clinical pregnancy during in vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation treatment.Methods:It was a case-control study on 191 patients during in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer(IVF-ET)in reproductive center from October 2017 to February 2018.All patients had made the questionnaires of the the baseline characteristics,self-rating anxiety Scale(SAS),self-rating depression scale(SDS),self-rating scale of sleep(SRSS),and a test of serum cortisol(COR)before the transvaginal oocyte retrieval(TVOR).96 cases were randomly assigned to the trained group and the other 95 cases to the control group.Patients in the trained group were given auricular acupressure on the apertures of shenmen,inside genital and endocrine,four times a day during the period from the time TVOR to embryo transfer;Patients in the control group were given general health education and psychological care.All patients had made the questionnaire of SAS,SDS and SRSS,and the test of serum COR concentration again on ET day.All data analyzed by SPSS20.0.Results:1.General information and anxiety,depression and sleep scale analysis were conducted before the TVOR between the two groups.Comparing the two groups patients' general information before TVOR,there were no statistical difference on the age,occupation,education,time of infertility and infertility reasons between the two groups(P>0.05).And the data of the all patients were statistically significant(P<0.05)compared with the Chinese norms.2.Differences of the anxiety,depression and sleep were compared pre and post intervention of the two groups of patients.Results compared with patients in control group,the anxiety index,depression index and sleep score of patients in intervention group were improved obviously the trained group(P<0.05).There was no significant difference in the control group(P>0.05).3.Differences of serum cortisol were compared pre and post intervention of two groups of patients.The serum content of cortisol was in the normal range of the patients in two groups.But the serum COR was decreased after AA treatment of the trained group(P<0.05).There was no significant difference(P>0.05)in the control groups.4.Differences of pregnancy rates between the two groups.There were 53(55.2%)cases of clinical pregnancy in trained group,which was higher than the control group of 38(40%)cases(P<0.05).Conclusions:1.There were significant anxiety,depression,and sleep problems of infertile women during in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer.2.Auricular acupressure can reduce the levels of anxiety,depression,and sleep problems in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer.3.Auricular acupressure can reduce cortisol levels,as a result reduce stress during the treatment of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer.4.Auricular acupressure an improve outcomes of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer.