Twenty Cases of 20 Women Treated with a Regimen of Herbal Medicine According to the Treatment Stage of in vitro Fertilization or Microinsemination / 日本東洋医学雑誌

ABSTRACT

This report describes 20 women who underwent in vitro fertilization or microinsemination while receiving a regimen of herbal medicine, of which contents varied according to the treatment stage. Until the ova were harvested, in order to promote maturation, patients were treated with hachimijiogan for reinforcing kidney yang, and keishibukuryogan for removing blood stasis. Following this, during the period between harvesting and implantation, they were treated either exclusively with unkeito for warming meridians, dissipates cold, and replenishes blood, or with unkeito in combination with keishibukuryogan. Following implantation, they were treated with tokishakuyakusan to induce uterine relaxation. The treatment regimen was determined based on traditional herbal evidence of infertile patient's blood stasis and kidney deficiency. We adjusted applied dose depending on the conditions of patients. Fourteen of the 20 women tested positive for pregnancy; 10 of them carried to term, whereas in 4 of them, the pregnancy ended in abortion or miscarriage. Anti-Müllerian hormone concentration, endometrial thickness, estimated follicle count, recovered ova count, fertilized ova count, and numbers of ova to reach the early-embryo stage and blastocyst stage were compared between the continuing pregnancy and the non-pregnancy groups. Improvements were observed in all values after combined use of traditional herbal medicines, except in the case of endometrial thickness, and significant differences appeared in recovered ova count and fertilized ova count. These observations suggest that a regimen of herbal medicine adapted to the various stages of in vitro fertilization may be a useful complementary therapy during pregnancy.