Acupuncture For Pelvic Pain

By Y.C. Chan, OMD, Dipl Ac

Acupuncture Clinic of Maryland

More Complementary & Integrative Healthcare Articles

Acupuncture For Pelvic Pain

Pelvic pain is a symptom that occurs mostly in the lower abdomen area. Acute pelvic pain starts with a short period of time, usually from a few minutes to several days. This kind of pain is a warning sign that indicates the patient needs prompt medical attention.

Acute pelvic pain is the most common symptom for patients after abdominal surgery or other soft tissue trauma. Pain that extends beyond a normal period, more than three months, may be considered chronic pelvic pain. Patients are of all ages, mostly women, but some men suffer from pelvic pain as well.

Women who have pelvic pain might feel dull pain during their period, sexual activities or urinating. However, pelvic pain can be a sign of one or more organ problems around the pelvic area, such as the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, lower intestines, rectum, bones or joints. Also, various infections cannot be excluded. If pelvic pain occurs in men, the most likely causes are prostatitis and pelvic floor weakness or certain infection with different organs.

Many patients have to undergo different medical tests to find the cause of pelvic pain. Treatment will depend on the cause, how severe the pain is and how often it occurs. However, certain causes of pelvic pain, unrelated to any organs, may be difficult to diagnose. Acupuncture treatment may be the right choice for such patients.

Acupuncture treatment is individualized to each patient. The goal of the treatment is to balance the body's Qi and disharmony, to perform needle stimulation to open the acupuncture channels and to reduce the pain. A treatment plan consists of 6-10 visits within several weeks either for prostatitis or chronic pelvic pain syndrome. The patient's condition improvement will be gradual, but can be long lasting.

A well-designed study conducted by the Malaysia University of Science and sponsored by the National Institute of Health, reported that after 10 weeks of treatment, acupuncture proved almost twice as likely as sham acupuncture treatment to improve chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome symptoms. Participants receiving acupuncture were 2.4 times more likely to experience long-term benefit than participants who received sham acupuncture.