Austrian Study Shows Effectiveness of Acupuncture for Endometriosis

In the European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology researchers from the Department of Internal Medicine at Kaiserin Elisabeth Hospital in Vienna recently conducted a study observing the effects of acupuncture on endometriosis.

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine is often used to treat an extremely broad range of women's health issues including irregular menstruation, painful menstruation, PMS, fertility, and more.  Endometriosis can be a very debilitating condition that is often a strong contributing factor in fertility issues for women.

The researchers in this study divided 101 women randomly into two acupuncture groups.  The first group received actual acupuncture on appropriately selected points and the second group received non-specific (sham) acupuncture as a control.  Research participants kept a pain log over the range of the study which included two 5 week acupuncture sessions with a 2 menstrual cycle observational period in between.  An unique part of the research was to switch group two after a cross-over period to "real" acupuncture. 

The study concludes by finding that the real acupuncture group showed a significant pain reduction after the first 10 treatments and group 2 showed significant pain relief only after the switch to "real" acupuncture.  They state that acupuncture appears to be effective for endometriosis pain and that further studies should be conducted.