Acupuncture in the Treatment of Infertility due to Luteal Phase Defect: A Meta-Analysis

Background: To systematically evaluate the clinical effect and safety of acupuncture (AC) in the treatment of patients with infertility due to luteal phase defects. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yiyi Kong, Jingli Liang, Yanhua Chen, Xin Zeng, Min Xu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IMR Press 2025-04-01
Series:Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.imrpress.com/journal/CEOG/52/4/10.31083/CEOG19928
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849697396883193856
author Yiyi Kong
Jingli Liang
Yanhua Chen
Xin Zeng
Min Xu
author_facet Yiyi Kong
Jingli Liang
Yanhua Chen
Xin Zeng
Min Xu
author_sort Yiyi Kong
collection DOAJ
description Background: To systematically evaluate the clinical effect and safety of acupuncture (AC) in the treatment of patients with infertility due to luteal phase defects. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses of AC’s clinical outcome and safety in treating infertility due to luteal phase defects. We searched for databases, including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, EMBASE, CNKI, CBM, Wanfang, Weipu, and VIP, and retrieved articles from inception to February 28, 2022. We used the STATA 12.0 software to conduct the meta-analyses. Egger’s test was conducted to assess publication bias. Results: A total of 9 randomized controlled trials involving 638 eligible patients were included in our study. The results of the meta-analysis showed that compared with a group of drug treatment, AC-based combination therapeutic regimes can significantly improve total effective rate (TER; odds ratio (OR) = 1.56, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.11–2.18, p = 0.010), and pregnancy rate (PR; OR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.20–2.13, p = 0.001) for patients with infertility due to luteal phase defect. Significant differences were observed in serum progesterone (P4) (standardized mean difference (SMD) = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.06–1.98, p = 0.000) and estradiol (E2) (SMD = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.47–1.45, p = 0.000) levels between AC-based combination therapeutic regimes group and the drug treatment group. Conclusions: AC combined with other drug treatments for luteal phase deficiency (LPD) infertility therapy can significantly increase the TER and PR and improve the serum P4 and estradiol (E2) levels of patients compared to drug treatment alone. Considering the low quality of the included studies, the results of this meta-analysis still need to be carefully interpreted. Well-designed clinical studies with large sample sizes are still required to confirm our results. Registration: The study has been registered on https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/ (registration number: CRD42023472727).
format Article
id doaj-art-ca9f32fa2fbb4f968e9ccd11b531e32e
institution DOAJ
issn 0390-6663
language English
publishDate 2025-04-01
publisher IMR Press
record_format Article
series Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology
spelling doaj-art-ca9f32fa2fbb4f968e9ccd11b531e32e2025-08-20T03:19:13ZengIMR PressClinical and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology0390-66632025-04-015241992810.31083/CEOG19928S0390-6663(23)02270-4Acupuncture in the Treatment of Infertility due to Luteal Phase Defect: A Meta-AnalysisYiyi Kong0Jingli Liang1Yanhua Chen2Xin Zeng3Min Xu4Department of Acupuncture, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, 510120 Guangzhou, Guangdong, ChinaDepartment of Acupuncture, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, 510120 Guangzhou, Guangdong, ChinaDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology Outpatient Emergency, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, 510120 Guangzhou, Guangdong, ChinaDepartment of Acupuncture, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, 510120 Guangzhou, Guangdong, ChinaDepartment of Gynecology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, 510120 Guangzhou, Guangdong, ChinaBackground: To systematically evaluate the clinical effect and safety of acupuncture (AC) in the treatment of patients with infertility due to luteal phase defects. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses of AC’s clinical outcome and safety in treating infertility due to luteal phase defects. We searched for databases, including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, EMBASE, CNKI, CBM, Wanfang, Weipu, and VIP, and retrieved articles from inception to February 28, 2022. We used the STATA 12.0 software to conduct the meta-analyses. Egger’s test was conducted to assess publication bias. Results: A total of 9 randomized controlled trials involving 638 eligible patients were included in our study. The results of the meta-analysis showed that compared with a group of drug treatment, AC-based combination therapeutic regimes can significantly improve total effective rate (TER; odds ratio (OR) = 1.56, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.11–2.18, p = 0.010), and pregnancy rate (PR; OR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.20–2.13, p = 0.001) for patients with infertility due to luteal phase defect. Significant differences were observed in serum progesterone (P4) (standardized mean difference (SMD) = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.06–1.98, p = 0.000) and estradiol (E2) (SMD = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.47–1.45, p = 0.000) levels between AC-based combination therapeutic regimes group and the drug treatment group. Conclusions: AC combined with other drug treatments for luteal phase deficiency (LPD) infertility therapy can significantly increase the TER and PR and improve the serum P4 and estradiol (E2) levels of patients compared to drug treatment alone. Considering the low quality of the included studies, the results of this meta-analysis still need to be carefully interpreted. Well-designed clinical studies with large sample sizes are still required to confirm our results. Registration: The study has been registered on https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/ (registration number: CRD42023472727).https://www.imrpress.com/journal/CEOG/52/4/10.31083/CEOG19928acupunctureinfertilityluteal phase defectrandomized controlled trialsmeta-analysis
spellingShingle Yiyi Kong
Jingli Liang
Yanhua Chen
Xin Zeng
Min Xu
Acupuncture in the Treatment of Infertility due to Luteal Phase Defect: A Meta-Analysis
Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology
acupuncture
infertility
luteal phase defect
randomized controlled trials
meta-analysis
title Acupuncture in the Treatment of Infertility due to Luteal Phase Defect: A Meta-Analysis
title_full Acupuncture in the Treatment of Infertility due to Luteal Phase Defect: A Meta-Analysis
title_fullStr Acupuncture in the Treatment of Infertility due to Luteal Phase Defect: A Meta-Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Acupuncture in the Treatment of Infertility due to Luteal Phase Defect: A Meta-Analysis
title_short Acupuncture in the Treatment of Infertility due to Luteal Phase Defect: A Meta-Analysis
title_sort acupuncture in the treatment of infertility due to luteal phase defect a meta analysis
topic acupuncture
infertility
luteal phase defect
randomized controlled trials
meta-analysis
url https://www.imrpress.com/journal/CEOG/52/4/10.31083/CEOG19928
work_keys_str_mv AT yiyikong acupunctureinthetreatmentofinfertilityduetolutealphasedefectametaanalysis
AT jingliliang acupunctureinthetreatmentofinfertilityduetolutealphasedefectametaanalysis
AT yanhuachen acupunctureinthetreatmentofinfertilityduetolutealphasedefectametaanalysis
AT xinzeng acupunctureinthetreatmentofinfertilityduetolutealphasedefectametaanalysis
AT minxu acupunctureinthetreatmentofinfertilityduetolutealphasedefectametaanalysis