Effectiveness and safety of Korean medicine for treating women with unexplained infertility: A multi-center observational study

Abstract

Background: This study was conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of herbal medicine and acupuncture treatment in unexplained infertile females.

Methods: One hundred patients were recruited from 3 Korean Medicine hospitals in Korea and they voluntarily signed informed consent agreements. Participants took the Onkyeong-tang (120cc) twice daily between menstrual cycle day (MCD) 3 and 12, and herbal medicine for ovulation and implantation (120cc) twice daily between MCD 13 and 28. They also received acupuncture and moxibustion treatment during 4 menstrual cycles. After the 4 menstrual cycle treatment period, there were 3 menstrual cycle observation periods. The primary outcome is signified by clinical pregnancy rates (CPR) and the secondary outcomes were implantation rates (IR), ongoing pregnancy rates (OPR), and live birth rates.

Results: 90 patients completed the study. 13 of the 90 subjects became pregnant. The CPR and IR was 14.44%. 7 of 13 pregnant subjects had continuing pregnancy for over 12 weeks, so that the OPR was 53.85%. The birth rate was 7.78%. All 7 pregnant patients gave birth to their babies and all the babies were live singletons and healthy. There were no serious adverse events.

Conclusions: The findings of this study may provide the possibility of effectiveness and safety of Korea medicine treatment for unexplained infertile women. Further study is required due to lack of control and small sample size in this study.

Keywords: Acupuncture; Herbal medicine; Infertility; Korean medicine; Pregnancy rate.

Fig. 1

Flow chart of study. MCD, Menstrual Cycle Day; POI, Prescription for Ovulation and Implantation.

Fig. 2

Pregnancy Outcome (N = 90).