Acupuncture as a Complementary Therapy for in Vitro Fertilization Patients: a Randomized Controlled Trial

This is an open-label randomized controlled trial of the use of acupuncture in infertile patients receiving In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Patients will be randomized into two groups: treatment group will receive acupuncture as a complementary approach to IVF and control group will receive the IVF treatment. Groups will be compared with the World Health Organization quality of life (WHOQOL-Bref), short-form 36 (SF-36), State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Scope-Stress questionnaires. In addition, data from medical records of infertile patients submitted to in vitro fertilization for treatment of infertility will be compared in the two different treatment groups (with and without acupuncture), such as the required dose of drugs for the treatment, number of ovarian follicles, number of oocytes captured, quality of oocytes, number of embryos, quality of embryos, pregnancy and abortion rates.