[danduma]

The website is great!

Many of my friends have gone through IVF and still I was surprised by some weird parts of the story.

For example: "I was stabbed with 932 needles" and when you tap you find out "because I wanted to improve my odds, I went to 31 acupuncture appointments, where 687 needles pierced my underbelly, legs and head".

It is clearly established that acupuncture is placebo, but beyond whether this placebo might actually improve the odds (highly disputed), it is an elective alternative procedure with unclear benefit, not part of a standard IVF journey.

I understand the story is a very personal one, but it would be good to remember it isn't necessarily representative of most people's experience.

[velavar]

It might very well be placebo but it helped me deeply and I can see why women that want to give it their all would try it (and that's why I don't begrudge her counting those jabs). If it helps anyone - my first cycle was without acupuncture and I barely got 4 eggs out of it. I underwent acupuncture for 3 months before my second cycle and that got me 12 eggs.

When each cycle costs about 30k USD, a lot of women with low amh, egg quality or ovarian reserve would try anything to help tweak the odds!

[Bombthecat]

Yeah, including weird teas, minerals, oils etc etc.

Source: my wife, every YouTube video was with something new which "totally" change your odds. Pinky promise.

God, how I hate those people.

[wat10000]

The "try anything to help" argument drives me batty. How do you know acupuncture doesn't hurt your odds? For every quack treatment somebody is trying to sell you, we could come up with a million other quack treatments (rub cat fur in your eyes twice daily to improve ovulation) that you're not trying. Random unproven nonsense is as likely to hurt as it is to help. Actually, given that it's so much easier to disrupt systems than it is to improve them, random unproven nonsense is far more likely to hurt than it is to help.

[Bombthecat]

Yeah, they are preying on people who a vulnerable and going through a difficult phase...

And always this sentence: I know someone who this worked with! You can always find someone where something "worked". Started smoking? Bet you find someone where it worked.. started drinking alcohol? Bet you find someone where it worked... Etc.

Mfer.

Excuse my English

[slavik81]

The total number might be a little out there due to her non-medical treatments, but the general sentiment is accurate for IVF. My wife filled up an entire sharps box with the injections she needed to take and that was with success on the first try of the first round (which is very rare).

As someone who is a bit squeamish around needles, I don't know if I could have done what she did.

[aozgaa]

> that was with success on the first try of the first round (which is very rare).

This very much depends on the patient history (age, cause of infertility, …) and the clinic. Live births per intended retrieval can vary from 10%-60% conditional on the above.

[slavik81]

In our case, it was suggested that the first transfer of the first cycle had a 15% chance of success. Whether that's "very rare" is perhaps a matter of perspective. It was low enough we assumed it would be a failure and we were surprised when it succeeded, but to a doctor it's a frequent occurrence.

[systemsweird]

Actually acupuncture has some studied physiological effects. One is nervous system mediated via the release of endorphins and then a later regulatory rebound which can have an anti inflammatory effect. I think low dose naltrexone has a somewhat similar method of action. I might have the details a bit off but the studies definitely exist if you want to research it. There are even some compounds in coffee (some of the bitter compounds not the caffeine) that have a very mild effect that works in a similar way.

Personally I’m not a fan of acupuncture and I suspect any nervous system benefits from acupuncture would be far outweighed from those of regular exercise. But maybe for people with chronic pain or other issues it could be useful.

[bsder]

In yet another great cosmic irony, one of the things that is notorious for making it difficult for a woman to get pregnant is the stress of trying to get pregnant.

Placebo or not, anything which reduces the stress of the mother-to-be can be extremely helpful.

[fecal_henge]

For a multiple IVF treatment case (a fancy hospital might have 40% cycle to birth rate remember) it would not be unusual to have ~100 actual injections.