Abstract
Female infertility is a state of fertility disorder caused by multiple reasons. The incidence of infertility for females has significantly increased due to various factors such as social pressure, late marriage, and late childbirth, and its harm includes heavy economic burden, psychological shadow, and even marriage failure. Conventional solutions, such as hormone therapy, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and embryo transfer, have the limitations of unsatisfied obstetric outcomes and serious adverse events. Currently, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), as a new treatment for infertility, is gradually challenging the dominant position of traditional therapies in the treatment of infertility. CAM claims that it can adjust and harmonize the state of the female body from a holistic approach to achieve a better therapeutic effect and has been increasingly used by infertile women. Meanwhile, some controversial issues also appeared; that is, some randomized controlled trials (RCTs) confirmed that CAM had no obvious effect on infertility, and the mechanism of its effect could not reach a consensus. To clarify CAM effectiveness, safety, and mechanism, this paper systematically reviewed the literature about its treatment of female infertility collected from PubMed and CNKI databases and mainly introduced acupuncture, moxibustion, and oral Chinese herbal medicine. In addition, we also briefly summarized psychological intervention, biosimilar electrical stimulation, homeopathy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, etc.
Highlights
Introduction e World HealthOrganization defines infertility as a failure of a couple to conceive after one year of regular unprotected intercourse
To clarify complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) effectiveness, safety, and mechanism, this paper systematically reviewed the literature about its treatment of female infertility collected from PubMed and CNKI databases and mainly introduced acupuncture, moxibustion, and oral Chinese herbal medicine
Acupuncture was performed in line with the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), while the control group chose the placebo acupoints for comparison. e results showed that the pregnancy rate and implantation rate in the treatment group were 29.4% and 12.6%, respectively, while those in the control group were 8.2% and 3.2% (P < 0.01), which concluded that acupuncture in the luteal phase has a positive effect on in vitro fertilization (IVF)/ICSI [27]
Summary
Acupuncture and moxibustion, an essential part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), have been protecting the health of the Chinese people for five thousand years. E results showed that endometrium-thickness and pregnancy rate in the treatment group were significantly higher than those of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Low-frequency EA at proximal and distal acupoints has proven to be effective in promoting ovulation and increasing the possibility of pregnancy [51] It can improve the angiogenesis of ovarian vessels and antral follicles. Studies have shown that reducing the blood flow impedance of bilateral uterine arteries and endometrium can significantly improve the blood flow parameters of the uterine artery [64, 65] and increase uterine blood flow and endometrial thickness, thereby improving ER It has a positive impact on embryo implantation rate and clinical pregnancy rate [66, 67]. The existing studies show that acupuncture has a positive effect on infertility and its mechanism is relatively explicit; there are still some limitations, such as insufficient sample size and lack of high-quality evidence in the existing studies. erefore, more large-scale RCTs are needed to clarify the efficacy and mechanism of acupuncture in infertility
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