Menstrual Pain Responds Well to Acupuncture

Many women in the western world experience pain directly before and/or during their period. From a Chinese medical perspective this is not healthy and reflects an imbalance in the way that the body is functioning. Happily, acupuncture and Chinese medicine are extremely useful in treating PMS, period pain, and the other attendant issues which can accompany the menstrual cycle. 

Perhaps just as important is the that once a course of treatment has been completed, most women find that their period related discomfort is indefinitely improved and that other bodily functions are concurrently improved.

Research and Articles

• A pilot study, published in the European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, which can be read about here, compared the use of pain killing medication to acupuncture and found that,

After one month's treatment, pain scores were significantly lower in both groups (p<0.05). Mean pain scores decreased by 52.2% and 69.5% in the NSAID and acupuncture groups, respectively.

Concluding that,

Acupuncture was as [at least, if not more] effective as NSAID therapy for patients with primary dysmenorrhea.

• The Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Economics published a study of more than 600 women, in which it was determined that:

...acupuncture in patients with dysmenorrhea was associated with improvements in pain and quality of life as compared to treatment with usual care alone and was cost-effective within usual thresholds.

 An Italian study showed that 87% of the women who received acupuncture for painful periods had significant pain reduction with their period and concluded that,

Our findings suggest that acupuncture may be indicated to treat dysmenorrhea related pain, in particular in those subjects in whom NSAID or oral contraceptives are contraindicated or refused.

-Acupuncture Treatment of Dysmenorrhea Resistant to Conventional Medical Treatment

V. Iorno1, et al. Centro di Medicina del Dolore ‘Mario Tiengo’ Osp Maggiore Policlinico Mangiagalli Regina Elena, Milano

An article in the March 2011 issue of The Clinical Journal of Pain found that treating patients with acupuncture had a clear pain reducing effect, which was independent of circulating prostaglandin levels in the blood. A summary of the study can be read here.