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Prayer may influence in vitro fertilization success

Public release date: 28-Sep-2001
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/ps

Prayer may influence in vitro fertilization success

Blinded and randomized international study reveals surprising results
New York, NY-Prayer seems to almost double the success rate of in vitro
fertilization procedures that lead to pregnancy, according to surprising
results from a study carefully designed to eliminate bias.

The controversial findings, published in the September issue of the Journal of
Reproductive Medicine, reveal that a group of women who had people praying for
them had a 50 percent pregnancy rate compared to a 26 percent rate in the group
of women who did not have people praying for them. None of the women undergoing
the IVF procedures knew about the praying.

The researchers acknowledge the results seem incredible and say unknown
biological factors may be playing a role in the difference between the two
groups. But they decided to go public with the results in the hope that other
scientists may carry out studies to determine if the findings are reproducible
and, if so, what factors might be responsible for the improved success rate in
the group of women who had people praying for them.

"We could have ignored the findings, but that would not help to advance the
field," says Dr. Rogerio Lobo, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN)
at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and lead author of the
study.

"We are putting the results out there hoping to provoke discussion and see if
anything can be learned from it. We would like to understand the biological or
other phenomena that led to this almost doubling of the pregnancy rate."

The study, which had several safeguards in place to eliminate bias, involved
199 women planning in vitro fertilization and embryo transfers at the Cha
Hospital in Seoul, Korea, between December 1998 and March 1999. A statistician
randomly assigned the prospective mothers to either a prayer group (100 women)
or a non-prayer group (99). Besides the women, the physicians and medical
personnel caring for the women did not know a study of prayer was ongoing.

The people praying for the women lived in the United States, Canada, and
Australia and were incapable of knowing or contacting the women undergoing the
procedures. Which women were in which group was not revealed until the
pregnancy data became available at the completion of the study. The people
praying were from Christian denominations and were separated into three groups.
One group received pictures of the women and prayed for an increase in their
pregnancy rate. Another group prayed to improve the effectiveness of the first
group. A third group prayed for the two other groups. Anecdotal evidence from
other prayer research has found this method to be most effective. The three
groups began to pray within five days of the initial hormone treatment that
stimulates egg development and continued to pray for three weeks.

Besides finding a higher pregnancy rate among the women who had a group praying
for them, the researchers found older women seemed to benefit more from prayer.
For women between 30 and 39, the pregnancy rate for the prayer group was 51
percent, compared with 23 percent for the non-prayer group.

The researchers analyzed their data several ways to see if they could find
other variables that would have accounted for the differences between the two
groups. However, no adjustments altered the results. The group will continue to
study whether its findings are genuine and, if so, what mechanisms might be at
work.

Other studies have shown that prayer seems to exert a benefit for heart
patients. The researchers believe theirs is the first study looking at prayer
and infertility.


###
None of the researchers are employed by religious organizations and were not
asked by religious groups to perform the study. Dr. Kwang Y. Cha, director of
the Cha Hospital and an associate research scientist at OB/GYN at Columbia
University College of Physicians & Surgeons, funded the research through his
hospital.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_relea...o-pmi092801.php

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