Laughter may be the best medicine to achieve pregnancy after IVF

Evaluating the impact of medical clowning on pregnancy rates after IVF embryo transfer.

MedWire News: Spending just 12-15 minutes with a professional medical clown could improve pregnancy rates for women undergoing IVF, show the results of an Israeli study.

Women who were randomly assigned to undergo a “medical clowning” encounter after embryo transfer (ET) were over two and a half times more likely to achieve a pregnancy compared with women who received no humorous intervention.

“Infertility and treatment by IVF-ET have been associated with stress,” say Shevach Friedler (Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Zrifin) and colleagues, who add that the beneficial effect of humor in stressful situations is well established.

The team arranged for 110 IVF patients to be visited by a medical clown immediately after ET. The clown, dressed as a “chef de cuisine,” performed a routine that included jokes, tricks, and magic. A group of 109 women who did not receive a visit acted as controls.

The pregnancy rate in the intervention group was 36.4 percent compared with 20.2 percent among controls, which, after adjusting for factors including age, diagnosis and type of infertility, and length of infertility, represented a 2.67-fold increased likelihood of pregnancy in the intervention group.

“The resources required to implement medical clowning are far less than those for other stress-reducing techniques,” comment Friedler et al.

In view of their results, medical clowning as an adjunct to treatment for infertility deserves further investigation, they conclude.

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