Chinese Medicine Doubles Chances for Infertile Couples Study
Chinese Medicine Doubles Chances for Infertile Couples Study
Infertility is a big problem for many couples nowadays. Female fertility declines with age, but the effect of age on male fertility is less clear (NICE, 2004). In an Australian Government-funded study, Ried and Stuart of Adelaide University reviewed 8 RCT’s and 22 smaller studies involving a total of 1851 women with poor fertility. Meta-analysis of studies involving over 1000 women found roughly double the likelihood of achieving pregnancy with Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) than with western medicine. Over a four-month period pregnancy rates were 60% for CHM verses 32% for western medicine.
Other studies, involving over 600 women, compared CHM with IVF and revealed a mean pregnancy rate for CHM of 50% compared with 30% for IVF. The
“Certainly IVF procedures were less sophisticated, but perhaps the dosages of follicle-stimulating drugs were not as aggressive as those used today. Of course these processes are emotionally draining for the majority of women going through ART procedures, particularly when the desired result doesn’t eventuate, so TCM is very useful in tackling the inevitable Liver and Heart Qi stagnation.“ states Dr. Jan MaLay.
Health World Limited the Australian and New Zealand
Source: Efficacy of Traditional CHM in the Management of Female Infertility: A Systematic Review.K Ried, K Stuart, Complementary Therapies in Medicine Vol. 19 issue 6 Dec. 2011