The Effect of Reflexology Treatments on IVF Outcome

Summary

Infertility is expressed as an inability to conceive or carry a healthy pregnancy to the end. It is often said that the couple suffers from infertility if for a year they could not get a normal pregnancy. 30% of the reasons for this unsuccess are attributed to women, 30% are attributed to men, while the other 40% of cases are attributed to the combination between men and women and for unknown reasons. In women, the source of most of the problems of infertility are associated with different failures in ovulation (early ovulation, lack of ovulation or irregular ovulation). Other reasons are Blocked fallopian tubes (due to endometriosis, infection or surgery), problems in the uterus and endometrium. There is a group of women that apparently does not have the failures described above, and they have infertility that does not include pathological findings. Apparently chronic stress is a potential cause among couples who could not get pregnant (despite 6 months of focused sex) so there is a request for various techniques for reducing stress including yoga and meditation. One common option in various conditions of infertility is in vitro fertilization. This technique is also known as artificial insemination and is the most common technique used in Israel. Data from the Ministry of Health from the last years, indicate that the rate of successful pregnancies after embryo transfer is more than a third (in average), this is from an average of 20 treatment cycles.

Researches in alternative medicine are not easy to carry out. The placebo group which is usually the control group tend to be a treatment group by itself and gives effective results than a group that does not receive treatment at all. Carrying out a strict study with a good control group such as reflexology research in multiple sclerosis, has brought significant results in various statistical measures examined in this study (movement, sensory mode and urinary tract symptoms).

In the control group the calf was chosen as a place of a massage as a dummy treatment (gynecological place), which prevented contact with specific points of the feet like in patients in the treatment group. This study wishes to answer the research question: Does reflexology treatment increase the chances of pregnancy implantation in women without pathological findings that are treated with IVF. Other questions related to measures that could lead to the implant of pregnancy, are whether reflexology treatment affect the endometrial thickness, number of oocytes and embryo quality. Literature indicates the potential of reflexology treatment on ovulation induction (But requires a good control group and large sample size).

Conditions

• Infertility

Interventions

OTHER

Placebo reflexology treatment

Placebo reflexology treatment will be done in the same rate as the reflexology treatment itself, but will be superficial in particular,and will be directed to organs and organ systems which are not relevant to the research topic.

OTHER

Reflexology treatment

Reflexology treatment will be done until the eggs implant. If the patient is not pregnant, she will start another reflexology treatment cycle. There will be minimum 4 and up to 6 reflexology treatments in every IVF cycle (maximum three IVF cycles) . Rate treatment will be two or three times a week.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Clalit Health Services

  collaborator OTHER

• Reidman college

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Meir Medical Center

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

42 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-05-31

Primary Completion

2017-05-31

Completion

2018-05-31