Clinical Studies

Research in the Works

Pulling Down the Moon is currently involved in a clinical study with Fertility Centers of Illinois examining the impact of six weeks of yoga, six weeks of acupuncture or six weeks of both yoga and acupuncture on IVF outcomes.

Other Clinical Studies of Interest

What is the relationship between stress and infertility?

I. There is ample evidence that infertility causes stress.

• Women undergoing IVF have stress levels equal to women with cancer and AIDS. (Domar AD et al. The psychological impact of infertility: a comparison with patients with other medical conditions. J Psychosom Obstet Gynaecol 1993;14 Suppl:45-52)
• Psychological factors are the #1 reason that insured couples drop out of IVF programs. (Olivus et al. Fertility and Sterility, Feb.81:2, 2004.)
• Stress is a huge burden, both to the patients and their partners, as well as the physician and the clinical support staff. An informal statistic presented at the CAREN (Chicago Area Reproductive Endocrinology Nurses) meeting last fall reported that the turnover rate of infertility nurses was equal to that of nurses working in oncology practices.

II. There is clinical evidence that stress may be associated with poor IVF outcomes, as well as evidence that stress reduction techniques/programs may improve IVF outcomes.

• Both cognitive therapy support groups and Mind/Body support groups have been shown to significantly increase pregnancy rates in infertility patients (Domar AD et al. Impact of group psychological interventions on pregnancy rates in infertile women. Fertil Steril 2000 Jul;74(1)190.III.) There is clinical evidence that increased vulnerability to stress is associated with menstrual cycle irregularities and poor IVF outcomes.
• Women measuring lower response to a cognitive stress test had a higher IVF success rates. (Facchinetti F et al. An increased vulnerability to stress is associated with a poor outcome of in vitro fertilization – embryo transfer treatment. Fertil Steril 1997 Aug;68(2):309-14.)
• Primate research indicates that female cynomolgus macaques exhibit different reproductive responses to moderate stress (social stress, physical activity, calories) with some animals proving highly stress resistant, some moderately stress resistant and some low stress resistant. These three groups also show different serotonin and cortisol responses to stress, with the lowest serotonin and highest cortisol response in the least stress resilient animals. (Bethea CL et al. Sensitivity to stress-induced reproductive dysfunction linked to activity of the serotonin system. Fertil Steril 2005 Jan;83(1) 148-155.)