Chinese herbs are better than IVF drugs for treating infertility in women
The management of female infertility with Chinese herbal medicine can improve pregnancy rates 2-fold within a 4 month period compared with Western Medical fertility drug therapy or IVF.
Assessment of the quality of the menstrual cycle, integral to TCM diagnosis, appears to be fundamental to successful treatment of female infertility.
Meta-analysis of RCTs suggested a 3.5 greater likelihood of achieving a pregnancy with Chinese herbal medicine therapy over a 4-month period compared with IVF drug therapy alone.
Meta-analysis of selected cohort studies (n = 616 women) suggested a mean clinical pregnancy rate of 50% using Chinese herbal medicine compared with IVF (30%) (p 0.0001).
Reference
Reid, et al. (2011) Efficacy of Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine in the management of female infertility: A systematic review. Complementary Therapies in Medicine Volume 19, Issue 6, 319-331, DOI: 10.1016/j.ctim.2011.09.003.