Alternative Medicine Hurts Chances of Pregnancy...

Anonymous's picture
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Here is an article that came out in Yahoo Health today.

It  makes some pretty big blanket statements about "alternative medicine" on falling pregnant.

"To date, no large-scale, randomized studies have been done looking at the value of alternative remedies."

"The women using such treatments overall were 20 percent less likely to get pregnant than those who did not, according to researchers Dr. Jacky Boivin, of Cardiff University, and Dr. Lone Schmidt, from the University of Copenhagen."

Have a read for yourself

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Ryan's picture

in the article, did they

in the article, did they reveal which therapies were studdied ? ie - TCM, Naturopath, Homeopath, Aromatherapy, ...

There are so many different types of "alternative" therapies, it would be interesting to see which forms of medicine they studdied and which results they actually publish!

mach5's picture

They Said...

Research presented Wednesday at a Lyon meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology examined the impact of alternative therapies on women receiving in-vitro fertilization over a year.

Of 800 Danish women followed for the study, 261 tried treatments including reflexology, herbal supplements, homeopathy, kinesiology and acupuncture.

The women using such treatments overall were 20 percent less likely to get pregnant than those who did not, according to researchers Dr. Jacky Boivin, of Cardiff University, and Dr. Lone Schmidt, from the University of Copenhagen.

Because Boivin and Schmidt were unable to disentangle the various alternative therapies tried — they measured all therapies tried, not individually — they could not explain why such treatments might decrease the pregnancy rate. "We have no idea why pressing on your feet could be bad for getting pregnant," Boivin said.

CF's picture

Hurting chances?

I've been trying to find more specific information on this article.

This statement by Dr. Boivin could be an extension of this April 2007 article from the Society for Reproductive Medicine, debating "Should mental health professionals
encourage infertile patients to try complementary therapies?"

http://www.jfponline.com/srm/pdf/April_2007_Archive/SRM0407_...

Here are some specific links to the original press release from 4 July 2007. As of now I was unable to find a specific research article:

http://www.eshre.com/emc.asp?pageId=944

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070704/ap_on_he_me/alternative_...

mach5's picture

Intresting Indeed

"""We cannot start with the assumption that these therapies do no harm," said Dr. Andrea Braverman, director of psychological and complementary care at Reproductive Medicine Associates in New Jersey. Braverman was not connected to Boivin's study and is currently running a study to see if acupuncture helps or hinders pregnancy.""

director of psychological and complementary care ...

tcmlorne's picture

ABORM Response to misleading study

Here is link to a rebuttal by the ABORM

http://www.chinesemedicinetools.com/article-sharing/acupuntu...

Lorne

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