Each year, thousands of Canadian couples turn to fertility clinics for help in having a baby. Many end up using in vitro fertilization. Now, some researchers say that the ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture may boost their odds of success.

Acupuncture has been used for centuries to treat pain and relieve stress. But Jennifer Dundas used it to boost her chance of having a baby while undergoing IVF.

"I saw an ad in the paper and it said 'Fertility problems? Try acupuncture'," she remembers.

After two failed attempts to get pregnant with in vitro fertilization, in which eggs were retrieved from her ovaries, fertilized with her partner's sperm and then inserted into her uterus, Jennifer decided to try adding acupuncture. She became pregnant on her first try.

"My first reaction was to cry with relief," she says. "You don't believe it because we had all these failed attempts."

Researchers Dr. Laurence Udoff says he and his team decided to investigate how acupuncture can help improve IVF success rates after learning that acupuncture had been used in China for centuries to regulate the female reproductive system.

"Obviously, something that has been around for years gives you pause and makes you wonder if there could be something to this," he says.

Udoff's team analyzed results from seven clinical trials of acupuncture involving 1,366 women who underwent IVF. They looked at three groups of women:

• Those who had an acupuncture treatment one day before fertilized embryos were implanted into their wombs
• Those who were given "sham" acupuncture before the embryo transfer, in which needles were placed in random locations
• And those who underwent no treatment ahead of embryo transfer

The reviewers found that adding legitimate acupuncture to an IVF cycle increased the odds of pregnancy by 65 per cent compared with the sham treatment or nothing.

According to the researchers, the results indicate in absolute terms that 10 women undergoing IVF would need to be treated with acupuncture to bring about one additional pregnancy.

The findings are published in the British Medical Journal.

"We were impressed," says Dr. Udoff. "Sixty-five per cent is a pretty significant amount when you are talking in vitro fertilization success rates."

Fertility treatments can be extremely stressful. Udoff's co-author, Eric Manheimer of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, thinks acupuncture may be an antidote to that stress, helping women to relax.

"Relaxing the patient may reduce the biological stress response and it may thereby increase blood flow to the uterus and that is why it may facilitate the embryo transfer with IVF," he says.

Jennifer MacHamer, who is part of an ongoing study of the therapy, believes acupuncture helped her become pregnant with her son, Matthew.

"I absolutely recommend it and if it helps a woman at least to relax and have a nice experience while she is going through a very stressful time, then that would be really helpful," she says.

What's more, doctors say acupuncture has no harmful effects and is relatively inexpensive. That's why more Canadian fertility clinics are beginning to offer it.

"The fertility world, they are becoming more aware and more accepting of other therapies that can boost their success rates," says acupuncturist Jenna Davis.

Meanwhile, scientists say they will continue to delve into the still mysterious connection between this ancient technique and exactly how it may be helping create new life with further studies.

With a report from CTV medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip