Are You Considering In Vitro Fertilization?
IVF & FET Support
We can help to guide and support you through this process with confidence & care.
Whole Family Health offers the following On-Site support at Alberta Reproductive Centre (ARC):
- Acupuncture before & after embryo transfer increases clinical pregnancy rates and live birth rates. (Scroll down for more info on research.)
- Community Fertility Acupuncture at ARC makes the increased success rates associated with consistent treatments more accessible.
- Whole Person CARE Guide nurtures your sense of agency throughout your fertility treatment process.
As part of your integrated Whole Person Fertility Care team, we can work closely with your other care provider(s) at ARC.
This collaborative approach keeps you at the centre of your Fertility Care plan, as we navigate your IVF journey with you to help you have a less stressful and empowered experience.
We will provide care to decrease stress, increase blood flow to the reproductive organs, improve uterine receptivity, while decreasing side effects and ultimately optimizing treatment outcomes.
What We Can Help Address:
- Pre- and post-transfer acupuncture for IVF/FET embryo transfer day (On-site at Alberta Reproductive Centre)
- Decreasing stress, anxiety and depression
- Decreasing negative impacts of stress
- Implantation and uterine receptivity
- Endometrial lining optimization
- Increasing blood flow
- Regulating the immune system
- Balancing hormones
- Mitigation of challenging symptoms from fertility medications
- History of unsuccessful IVF/FET cycles
- History of pregnancy loss
- Optimizing Egg and sperm quality
- Donor egg, sperm or embryo cycles
Evidence-Based Protocols
Research is ongoing and we keep up with the latest literature and evidence-based studies to optimize your treatment outcomes.
At Whole Family Health, we offer Whole Person Fertility Care plans based on a combination of time-tested Eastern approaches with the latest evidence-based protocols.
Here is some of the latest research:
Effects of acupuncture on pregnancy outcomes in women undergoing in vitro fertilization: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis
A systematic review and meta-analysis, published in July 2023 in the Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics revealed that acupuncture led to improved clinical pregnancy rates and live birth rates (both by 33% compared with controls) in IVF patients.
This review was based on an extensive search of digital databases including PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, the Web of Science, and ScienceDirect. A total of 25 trials, encompassing 4757 participants were included in this systematic review.
Coenzyme Q10 and Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation
A retrospective controlled study published in December 2022 concluded that CoQ10 in combination with transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) as an adjuvant therapy to IVF/ICSI embryo transfer significantly enhanced pregnancy rates among patients with poor ovarian response, when compared with CoQ10 alone as an adjuvant therapy.
CoQ10 and TEAS therapy improved ovarian reactivity and increased numbers of eggs retrieved, as well as better quality embryos and improved endometrial receptivity.
Transcutaneous electrical acupuncture point stimulation on endometrial receptivity
A single-blind prospective randomised controlled trial published in October 2014 concluded that in patients undergoing frozen embryo transfer (FET), transcutaneous electrical acupuncture point stimulation (TEAS) led to greater endometrial blood flow, ultrasound markers of endometrial receptivity, rates of embryo implantation, clinical pregnancy and live birth rates when compared to mock TEAS.
