Acupuncture During IVF: What We Know, What We Don’t and Why It Matters
A major new review of common IVF add-ons has led to headlines suggesting that acupuncture does not improve IVF outcomes. If you are undergoing IVF—or investing time, energy, and money in fertility acupuncture—you may understandably be wondering:
Does this mean acupuncture isn’t worth it?
The most honest answer is that the research still cannot tell us that with certainty.
The review did not prove that acupuncture is ineffective. It found that the available evidence is not strong enough to determine whether acupuncture increases live birth rates.
Those statements may sound similar, but scientifically, they mean very different things.
What did the researchers study?
Published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women’s Health, this research was not a new clinical trial of acupuncture. It was a systematic review and meta-analysis examining ten commonly used IVF add-ons, including acupuncture, corticosteroids, EmbryoGlue, endometrial scratching, intralipid infusions, platelet-rich plasma and PGT-A.
The researchers took an especially rigorous approach. Before analyzing the results, they evaluated the trustworthiness of the individual trials. Studies were excluded if they had concerns such as a lack of prospective registration, inconsistencies in the data or other potential research-integrity issues.
Of the 91 acupuncture trials initially identified, only 22 were included in the final analysis.
This is important. It highlights a genuine problem within the existing body of acupuncture and IVF research: we need larger, more rigorous and more clinically relevant studies.
What did the review find about acupuncture?
When the researchers analyzed clinical pregnancy—meaning a pregnancy confirmed by ultrasound—acupuncture was associated with approximately one-third higher odds of pregnancy.
However, the certainty of this evidence was rated as very low. This means the researchers had little confidence that the estimate represented acupuncture’s true effect.
When they examined live birth, the outcome that ultimately matters most to patients, the results were inconclusive. The available evidence could not establish whether acupuncture increased live birth rates.
So, what can we accurately conclude?
The review did not find reliable evidence that acupuncture increases the chance of live birth. It also did not establish that acupuncture has no benefit.
Instead, it showed that the research we currently have is not strong enough to give us a definitive answer.
“No clear evidence of benefit” is not the same as “evidence of no benefit”
This distinction is one of the most important things to understand when interpreting medical research.
If a high-quality, adequately powered study consistently shows that a treatment produces no meaningful effect, we can become more confident that the treatment is ineffective.
But when studies are small, use inconsistent methods, evaluate different treatment protocols or provide very low-certainty evidence, the appropriate conclusion is uncertainty.
Uncertainty is not proof that acupuncture works. But it is also not proof that it doesn’t.
As a practitioner, I believe it is important to communicate both sides honestly. Patients should never be promised that acupuncture will make an IVF cycle successful. At the same time, we should be careful not to turn an inconclusive result into a definitive negative conclusion.
What kind of acupuncture did these studies evaluate?
This is where the details become especially important.
Many of the acupuncture trials included in the review evaluated a very specific treatment model: two or three standardized acupuncture sessions performed on or around the day of embryo transfer.
That is not necessarily the same as the fertility acupuncture commonly provided in clinical practice.
A comprehensive fertility acupuncture treatment plan may begin before an IVF cycle and continue throughout ovarian stimulation, egg retrieval and embryo transfer. Treatment is often individualized based on the patient’s medical history, symptoms, IVF protocol and response to medication.
The existing randomized controlled trials generally have not evaluated:
Several weeks or months of treatment before IVF
Individualized acupuncture protocols
Acupuncture throughout ovarian stimulation and retrieval
The number or frequency of treatments most likely to produce an effect
The broader supportive care often provided alongside acupuncture
Treatment in patients transferring PGT-A-tested embryos
Acupuncture within modern frozen embryo-transfer protocols
Most of the research was conducted in fresh embryo-transfer cycles, while IVF practice in the United States has increasingly shifted toward frozen embryo transfers. None of the included trials specifically studied acupuncture in patients undergoing frozen embryo transfer with a PGT-A-tested euploid embryo.
In other words, much of the evidence being used to answer today’s questions was generated within an IVF landscape that does not fully reflect how IVF is currently practiced.
This does not mean that a more comprehensive course of acupuncture necessarily improves outcomes. It means that the research has not adequately tested that question.
The challenge of sham acupuncture
Another difficulty in acupuncture research is determining what should count as an inactive placebo.
Some trials compare traditional acupuncture with “sham” acupuncture, which may involve superficial needling, nontraditional acupuncture points or nonpenetrating devices that touch the skin.
However, sham acupuncture may not be physiologically inactive. Touching or stimulating the skin can produce nervous-system responses. Patients in both groups also receive time with a practitioner, therapeutic attention and an opportunity to rest quietly.
This can make it difficult to detect a difference between real and sham acupuncture—particularly in studies that do not include enough participants.
This limitation should not be used as proof that acupuncture works. It does, however, make acupuncture trials more difficult to design and interpret than a straightforward comparison between a medication and an inert sugar pill.
Live birth is important—but it isn’t the only outcome that matters
For someone undergoing IVF, the ultimate goal is not simply a positive pregnancy test. It is a healthy baby.
That is why live birth should remain the most important outcome when investigating whether acupuncture directly improves IVF success.
But it is not the only outcome that matters to patients.
IVF can be physically demanding and emotionally exhausting. Patients may experience anxiety, disrupted sleep, headaches, digestive symptoms, bloating, discomfort from medications and an overwhelming sense that their lives have become organized around appointments, monitoring and waiting.
Research has suggested that acupuncture may offer a small but meaningful reduction in IVF-related anxiety, although the certainty of that evidence is also limited.
Reducing anxiety is not the same as increasing live birth rates, and it should not be presented that way. But helping someone feel calmer, sleep better or cope more comfortably during fertility treatment still has real value.
Supportive care does not have to guarantee a pregnancy to be worthwhile.
So, is acupuncture worth adding to IVF?
There is no universal answer.
The decision may depend on what you hope to gain from treatment, the financial cost, your access to an experienced practitioner and whether acupuncture makes the IVF process feel more manageable.
If your only reason for trying acupuncture is that someone guaranteed it would make your embryo implant, the current evidence does not support that promise.
But if you are looking for individualized support throughout IVF—and you understand that acupuncture cannot guarantee a successful outcome—you may still find it to be a valuable part of your care.
Look for a licensed acupuncturist with specific training and experience in reproductive medicine. Your practitioner should understand IVF protocols, communicate comfortably with your fertility team when appropriate and be transparent about both the possibilities and limitations of treatment.
How I discuss acupuncture and IVF with my patients
I do not tell patients that acupuncture will make their IVF cycle work.
I explain what we know, what remains uncertain and where acupuncture may fit into their overall care. Acupuncture cannot change the chromosomal status of an embryo, guarantee implantation or eliminate the many variables that influence IVF success.
My goal is to provide evidence-informed treatment while also supporting the person going through the process.
That may include preparing for an IVF cycle, helping manage treatment-related symptoms, addressing sleep and stress, offering support during stimulation and creating a space where the patient can step out of the clinical intensity of IVF for a moment.
Patients deserve support without exaggerated promises. They also deserve scientific discussions that acknowledge uncertainty instead of reducing complicated evidence to a headline.
The bottom line
This new review should not be interpreted as “acupuncture works” or “acupuncture doesn’t work.”
It tells us that the available evidence does not clearly demonstrate that limited acupuncture performed around embryo transfer increases live birth rates. It also reveals how much the existing research has yet to answer about individualized, appropriately dosed acupuncture within modern IVF care.
We need better-designed studies that reflect how acupuncture and IVF are actually practiced today.
Until then, the most responsible approach is neither to overpromise nor to dismiss. It is to clearly explain what acupuncture may offer, what it cannot guarantee and allow each patient to decide whether that support feels worthwhile to them.
References
Lensen S, et al. “Safety and effectiveness of ten common in-vitro fertilisation add-on treatments: an overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.” The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women’s Health. 2026. Read the study
Hullender Rubin L. “A Major New Study Says Acupuncture May Not Improve IVF Outcomes. Here Is the Fuller Story.” Rosefinch Health. 2026. Read the analysis