Why is it that acupuncture is so often seen to reduce anxiety, improve mood, manage stress and increase resilience? That is a question that many researchers have tried to address – coming up with findings related to increased endorphin or serotonin levels or decreased cortisol or adrenalin levels or regulation of endocannabinoid levels.

While we still don’t know all the mechanisms it is becoming clearer that managing stress is an important part of infertility treatment.

A dozen or so publications listed below describe the effect of acupuncture on stress levels of IVF patients and others suffering anxiety or depression. Another group of papers listed here examines the effect of stress on fertility and IVF outcomes.

Abstracts of these papers along with plain English summaries have been removed to comply with AHPRA guidelines. If you are interested to receive any of these, or any other information about stress and fertility please don’t hesitate to ask us.