Acupuncture for menstrual problems

Acupuncture for heavy, painful or difficult periods can be really useful.  Many people suffer all kinds of menstrual symptoms for years without finding relief, or sometimes without even realising that things could be better.  Acupuncture can help release tension across your body and re-establish natural processes and rhythms.

Many women experience symptoms of menstrual imbalance, which often respond well to acupuncture treatment:

Painful periods

Heavy or scanty bleeding

Dark or clotted menstrual blood.

Irregular, short cycles, long cycles or missed periods

 Pre-menstrual problems

Post-menstrual tiredness or pain

Endometriosis, which is diagnosed in Chinese medicine as Blood Stagnation, with pain and other symptoms arising from bleeding into the abdominal cavity. 

Fibroids, which are also diagnosed as Blood Stagnation

 PCOS (Poly-cystic fibrosis)

Research

A 2003 report by the World Health Organisation (WHO)(1) found that dysmenorrhoea (period pain) is one of the conditions "for which acupuncture has been proved-through controlled trials-to be an effective treatment".  Female infertility, hypo-ovarianism, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and premenstrual syndrome (PMS) are included in the conditions "for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed."   A 2008 German study of women with period pain found that those who received acupuncture had pain scores of 3.1 out of ten after three months, compared to 5.4 for those who had not, which is a reduction of more than 40% (see article in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology(2)).   A 1999 review by the British Acupuncture Council(3) concluded that acupuncture could be highly effective in the treatment of dysmenorrhoea (period pain), dysfunctional uterine bleeding and pelvic inflammatory disease, often helping over 80% of patients.   Meanwhile a review(4) by the British Medical Journal described acupuncture as "very safe" when practiced by an appropriately-qualified practitioner.    The modern evidence base for acupuncture is incomplete, and this is true for a great many areas of conventional medicine too.  The Clinical Evidence website of the British Medical Journal tells us that of the 2,500 conventional medical treatments their databases cover, 46% are of unknown effectiveness (as at October 2009)(5).