Listening to music while undergoing IVF can significantly increase a woman’s chance of getting pregnant, a study suggests.
One theory, say the researchers, is that music stimulates the release of the brain chemical dopamine, which helps regulate mood and emotions, and which also reduces inflammation.
‘Music therapy was associated with a significantly increased likelihood of clinical pregnancy,’ say the researchers, who found that other non-drug therapies also boosted pregnancy rates.
They suggested that further trials of such ‘non-pharmacological interventions’, should be carried out ‘to provide more robust evidence for the optimal use of these interventions for fertility treatment patients’.
It is estimated that more than 50,000 patients a year undergo IVF at licensed fertility clinics in the UK.
Average IVF pregnancy rates using fresh embryo transfers for patients aged 18 to 34 are 41 per cent per embryo, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
In the study, published in the journal Archives of Public Health, researchers analysed the evidence from 43 trials for the effects of non-drug treatment on the likelihood of achieving pregnancy in women undergoing IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection, a type of IVF in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg. Around 6,000 women were involved in the trials.
Results show that cognitive-behavioural therapy, acupuncture, lifestyle intervention, health education, and music therapy – which can involve listening to it or playing instruments – were each associated with a significantly increased likelihood of a pregnancy, compared with a control group who received no additional treatment.
Listening to music while undergoing IVF can significantly increase a woman’s chance of getting pregnant
One theory is that music stimulates the release of dopamine, which helps regulate mood and also reduces inflammation
The study showed that cognitive-behavioural therapy, acupuncture, lifestyle intervention, health education, and music therapy were each associated with a significantly increased likelihood of a pregnancy
Music therapy increased the likelihood by 52 per cent, according to the researchers. Cognitive behaviour therapy by 44 per cent, and health education by 57 per cent.
Researchers from the Center for Reproductive Medicine, Zhengzhou University Hospital, China, said: ‘Previous research has indicated that music
therapy can elicit positive thoughts and emotional experiences in patients. It achieves this through mechanisms such as stimulating dopamine release, enhancing immunity, and reducing neuroinflammation.
‘It is thought to possess the ability to regulate both psychological and physiological processes.’
