Understanding Women’s Health and Acupuncture Research

Exploring Women’s Health, Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine Research

Chinese Medicine, including Acupuncture and herbal medicine, has been practised for thousands of years to support women’s health — from puberty through pregnancy, menopause, and beyond. It’s a remarkable system of medicine that has spread worldwide, helping millions of people find balance and better health.

While Chinese Medicine isn’t the answer for every person or every condition, modern research continues to highlight its benefits and effectiveness. However, understanding and interpreting that research can be challenging, and there are several reasons why results may vary between studies.

Firstly, Chinese Medicine is highly individualised. Treatments are designed specifically for each person’s unique symptoms and constitution. This personalised approach is one of its greatest strengths, but it doesn’t always fit well into scientific trials, which rely on standardised methods to measure outcomes.

Secondly, placebo effects can be difficult to rule out. Good research studies compare real treatments with a “sham” or fake version, but creating a truly fake Acupuncture treatment is tricky. With more than 300 Acupuncture points on the body, even points chosen away from the true locations may still stimulate beneficial effects — making it hard to know exactly how much of the response is due to the treatment itself.

Finally, research funding is often limited. Large, high-quality studies require significant resources, and funding for Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture research is not as easily accessible as for pharmaceutical or hospital-based research.

Despite these challenges, there is a growing body of evidence from universities and medical institutions around the world confirming the effectiveness of Chinese Medicine treatments for many conditions.

Some Useful Research Terms

A Systematic Review is considered the most conclusive form of research. It reviews multiple Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) — studies where participants don’t know which treatment they’re receiving — and assesses how strong the evidence is.

When a review states there isn’t enough proof, it often reflects study quality or sample size, not necessarily that the treatment doesn’t work. In many cases, it simply means more robust studies are needed.

Acupuncture for period pain - 

In the Western Med world, period pain is called Primary Dysmenorrhea and it is when it occurs for no known reason. Endometriosis and Adenomyosis are considered separate diagnosis with different underlying mechanisms and haven't been included in this research. You can read more on the causes of period pain and ways to reduce & prevent it here.

Despite Chinese Medicine working to alleviate period pain for approx 2000 years, the current evidence is positive but unfortunately many studies’ methodology and reporting have been of poor quality.
Two systematic reviews of RCT’s have shown a benefit for using Acupuncture to treat period pain and one systematic review found Acupuncture to be a cost-effective treatment for Dysmenorrhoea.

In 2014, Xu et al acknowledged more high quality studies need to be done but from the current data found “Moxibustion and acupoint therapy can relieve pain effectively for individuals with PD, and these treatments have advantages in overall efficiency”

In 2015, Abaraogu et al concluded “Acupressure showed evidence of pain relief while acupuncture improved both the mental and the physical components of quality of life” but acknowledged that more high quality of research was needed.

Of course, allowing for different health systems across the globe but overall Kim et al found that “this review demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of acupuncture” including for Dysmenorrhea in 2012.

Though a small sized trial, an Australian 2017 RCT by Armour et al found "Acupuncture treatment reduced menstrual pain intensity and duration after three months of treatment and this was sustained for up to one year after trial entry".

However, due to the large volume of low-quality studies, the 2016 Cochrane review found there was “insufficient evidence” to make a judgement.

Every woman is different, if you would like to find out how we would address your unique situation, please contact us directly.