Acupuncture may become a mainstream treatment for period and endometriosis pain

It’s early days, but Armour says the results are promising. A study of 74 Kiwi women with primary dysmenorrhoea – period pain with no organic cause – published last year in the international journal PLOS One found that 12 acupuncture treatments over three months significantly reduced the intensity, duration and symptoms of the women’s pain for up to a year.

More recently, Armour carried out a small feasibility study looking at using twice-weekly acupuncture for eight weeks to treat the often-crippling pain associated with endometriosis – an inflammatory disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus is found in places outside the uterus. The results haven’t yet been published but he says the data analysis is looking promising – though no decision has been made about whether to carry out a larger study.

For Armour, it’s about combining scientific rigour with his passion for traditional Chinese medicine. He has a foot in both camps. He graduated with a degree in biomedicine from the University of Auckland before training as an acupuncturist. He combines the two areas of expertise in his job as a post-doctoral fellow in women’s health at Western Sydney University.

Although acupuncture is increasingly being used by Western health practitioners, Armour says it’s important to carry out proper clinical trials before recommending it as a replacement for – or an addition to – established medical treatment.

“We need to examine what acupuncture works for and how well it works for particular conditions, especially for conditions where there’s difficult medical management.”

He says the pain of endometriosis is a good candidate for treatment by acupuncture, particularly for women who have developed a chronic pain condition because of delays in getting diagnosis and treatment.