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Whole Systems Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment during IVF resulted in clinically significant improvements in acute pain, stress, and anxiety.

Patients who received Whole Systems Traditional Chinese Medicine (WS-TCM) while undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) reported clinically significant improvements in acute pain, stress, and anxiety with a single treatment, according to a single-center study published online in Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health.

According to the study authors, WS-TCM, which includes acupuncture, lifestyle and dietary modifications, and herbal medicines, has shown benefit for women undergoing IVF. Yet few studies have reported on the immediate effects of adjuvant WS-TCM on pain, stress, and anxiety.

“Our work represents some of the first efforts to assess the immediate impact of such therapies upon patient-reported psychosocial symptomatology, in a population for whom improved mental health may ultimately impact IVF outcomes,” wrote corresponding author Rebecca Lu, MD, of The University of Chicago, and study coauthors. “Thus, these efforts represent a novel, whole health approach to addressing quality of life outcomes during infertility care.”

Integrative Care in an Academic Fertility Center

The research team’s retrospective review at the University Hospitals (UH) Fertility Center, Westlake, Ohio, charts one of the largest real-world integrations of WS-TCM into IVF practice to date. Over 18 months, 146 women (mean age 35.8 ± 4.4 years) received 1,896 WS-TCM treatments—principally acupuncture—across 202 embryo transfers. WS-TCM was most often delivered on the day of transfer (88.6% of cycles), but preparatory sessions also preceded 64.9% of transfers, and 32.2% followed by post-transfer care, reflecting a deliberately holistic model, according to the authors.

“The WS-TCM providers at UH Connor Whole Health provide WS-TCM treatments including acupuncture to patients undergoing ART … as well as on-site acupuncture in the UH Fertility Center procedure area on the day of embryo transfer, when requested,” the team noted.

Clinically Meaningful Symptom Relief

The research team found that, among patients who recorded baseline scores of 1 or higher on a 0–10 numeric rating scale, a single treatment produced average reductions of 1.38 points in pain, 2.11 points in stress, and 2.22 points in anxiety—changes that exceed accepted thresholds for clinical relevance. These acute benefits mirror, and in some cases surpass, effect sizes reported in controlled trials of peri-procedural acupuncture in oncology and orthopedic surgery, according to the authors.

Addressing Psychological Burden

Results showed that infertility‐related distress was common: 26.7% of participants carried a documented mental-health diagnosis, most frequently anxiety disorders.

“Cost constitutes a significant barrier to IVF care in the US, with estimates ranging from $12,000 to over $25,000 per IVF cycle. As a result, IVF presents multiple psychosocial stressors,” the authors wrote, suggesting that WS-TCM’s rapid anxiolytic and stress-reducing effects may enhance patients’ QOL precisely when emotional resilience is most tenuous. 

Individualized Yet Standardizable

Although traditional point selection was individualized, frequently used loci—including GV 20, CV 6, ST 29, SP 10, ST 36, SP 6, and auricular Shenmen—align with the Paulus day-of-transfer protocol, raising the prospect of codifying WS-TCM regimens for broader adoption, the authors noted.

Limitations & Future Directions

The research team acknowledged the study’s observational design, absence of a control group, and reliance on single-item patient-reported outcomes. Still, they contended that embedding standardized metrics in electronic health records and employing propensity-matched comparisons could refine future evaluations.

“While future research is needed to further characterize and define WS-TCM’s real-world effectiveness on IVF outcomes such as live birth rate, this study demonstrates that modern WS-TCM may be a useful adjuvant in supporting the clinical experience of infertility treatment,” the authors concluded.