Pelvic Care Blog
Our blog is dedicated to supporting acupuncturists who specialize or hope to specialize in pelvic health. We hope you enjoy our musings and offerings.
Why Do Some Postpartum Depression Patients Respond to Acupuncture and Others Don't?
A 2023 clinical trial out of Shenzhen followed 96 postpartum depression patients through 8 weeks of acupuncture and found something worth sitting with. The symptom improvement was real and clinically meaningful, a mean reduction of 5.31 points on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, well past the accepted threshold for a clinically important change.
Three Mini Courses This Week Break Down Damp Heat Into What It Actually Is
Damp heat is a single TCM diagnostic name that actually covers three distinct clinical problems, discharge conditions, viral latency conditions and structural mass forming conditions, and most acupuncturists were taught to treat them all the same way. Next week The Pelvic Acu is teaching all three separately, live, free for the first 72 hours after each session.
A new double blind RCT just published in The Journal of Pain
A new double blind, placebo controlled RCT on acupuncture for vulvodynia was just published in The Journal of Pain. It is the first multi needle, multi session, double blind acupuncture trial ever conducted for this condition. The lead investigator, Dr. Judith Schlaeger at University of Illinois Chicago, partnered with Dr. Ted Kaptchuk at Harvard's Program in Placebo Studies and Dr. Nobuari Takakura in Japan, whose lab developed the only validated double blind acupuncture needles in existence.
Why Pelvic Health Needs a Voice: My Conversation on Her Voice Shines
Dr. Krystal Couture joins Her Voice Shines to talk pelvic health, the care gap her clients fell into and why this work finally deserves a voice. Listen in.
How to Introduce Your Pelvic Acupuncture Services to Local Healthcare Providers
How do you actually get on the radar of the providers in your community? Not just the pelvic PTs. The OB/GYNs, urogynecologists, REIs, urologists, oncologists, midwives, doulas and pelvic chiropractors who are seeing the same clients you want to serve.
the transcare your clients cannot find anywhere else
Every body has a pelvis, and every body deserves a practitioner ready to treat it. Join the Chicago Pelvic Care Practical on June 20 and 21 and receive the Pelvic Health + Transcare Webinar free this Pride month.
How to Collaborate with Pelvic PTs
Let's talk about what it looks like to actually walk into your community and build referral relationships with pelvic PTs without shrinking yourself in the process. This is the question I hear from acupuncturists more than almost any other. How do I work alongside the pelvic PTs in my area without stepping on their toes? How do I get on their radar without underselling what I do?
Featured in Voyage LA: Closing the Gap, One Acupuncturist at a Time
The interview gave me the chance to say, in one place, the thing I have spent 19 years trying to say.
Someone nominated us for Voyage LA, and I still don't know who.
I got the note that The Pelvic Acu had been chosen for a feature, and I sat with it for a minute, a little teary, because someone out there decided this work was worth pointing a light at. If that someone is reading this: thank you. You have no idea.
We've Been Needling the Pelvic Floor for Thousands of Years
We have been needling the pelvic floor for over two thousand years. So here is the question I want every acupuncturist reading this to sit with: why have we let the pelvic floor become someone else's medicine?
ViRGINIA PELVIC CARE PRACTICAL -MAY 2026
13 women showed up with open hearts, open minds and a desire to serve an underserved population. I'm still marveling at the revelations that manifested during this past weekend's training.
Ashi Points vs. Trigger Points: What Research Tells Us About Dry Needling
As acupuncturists, we have been navigating a quiet identity question for years. A growing number of physical therapists, chiropractors, and athletic trainers are inserting filiform needles into muscle tissue and calling it dry needling. Patients are receiving the work. Insurance is increasingly covering it. And our profession has been left to ask whether what they are doing is, in fact, our medicine practiced under a different name.
Vulvodynia
Vulvodynia affects approximately 7% of American women, yet many suffer for years before receiving an accurate diagnosis. This chronic vulvar pain of unknown origin, lasting at least three months, can devastate intimate relationships and severely impact quality of life. For acupuncturists treating pelvic health conditions, understanding vulvodynia and the growing evidence supporting acupuncture as an effective treatment offers hope to patients who have often exhausted conventional options.
NEW PUBLICATION: CHRONIC PELVIC PAIN & ACUPUNCTURE
Dr. Krystal Lynn Couture has officially been published in collaboration with Golden Flower Chinese Herbs.
This work brings forward a powerful and much-needed conversation around chronic pelvic pain (CPP) and the role of acupuncture in addressing one of the most complex and underserved conditions in modern healthcare.
The Gut-Pelvic Floor Connection
When a patient presents with both chronic constipation and pelvic pain, or when bladder urgency seems to worsen alongside digestive distress, many practitioners recognize that something connects these seemingly separate systems. For acupuncturists treating pelvic health conditions, understanding the intricate relationship between digestive physiology and pelvic floor function is essential. The connection runs deeper than simple anatomical proximity. It involves a complex interplay of nervous systems that communicate bidirectionally, creating cycles that can either support health or perpetuate dysfunction.
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome in Pelvic Health
When patients present with a constellation of seemingly unrelated symptoms (skin flushing, digestive issues, pelvic pain, and unexplained reactions to foods or temperature changes), many practitioners find themselves searching for answers. For acupuncturists specializing in pelvic health, understanding Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) is becoming increasingly essential to providing comprehensive, effective care.
Pelvic Care Grand Rounds: Collaborative Case Discussion for Pelvic Health Practitioners
Join Us For Grand Rounds on Feb 18th at 12:00 Noon. Recording available to all registrants.
The Spirit of Pelvic Health: Our Latest Podcast Feature
Pelvic health is so much more than anatomy, it’s a living dialogue between the physical body, our emotions, thoughts, spiritual journeys, and the deeper stories we carry.
