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?
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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.

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The Last Practical of 2026 Has Four Seats Left
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The Last Practical of 2026 Has Four Seats Left

Seattle sold out. AND Both Montreal dates sold out.

48 acupuncturists said yes to closing the gap in pelvic care this fall, fast enough that I had to close registration early on both coasts. I am sitting with real gratitude this week. Every one of those seats is a practitioner who is about to walk back into clinic with real time needle guidance for pelvic floor dysfunction, hands on palpation training and the confidence to use it Monday morning.

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Three Mini Courses This Week Break Down Damp Heat Into What It Actually Is
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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.

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A new double blind RCT just published in The Journal of Pain
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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.

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Acupuncture for Overactive Bladder in Postmenopausal Women
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Acupuncture for Overactive Bladder in Postmenopausal Women

If you've been treating pelvic health conditions for any length of time, you'll know that overactive bladder (OAB) is one of those issues that quietly dominates your patient caseload. Symptoms like urgency, frequency, waking multiple times a night might not make headlines, but they significantly erode quality of life for the women experiencing them. And for postmenopausal women in particular, the burden is disproportionate.

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PCOS Is Now PMOS. And Honestly? It's About Time.
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PCOS Is Now PMOS. And Honestly? It's About Time.

Something landed in my inbox this morning that stopped me mid sip of tea. PCOS has been officially renamed. As of today, the condition that one in eight women carry, that more than 170 million women worldwide are navigating, is no longer called Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. It is now Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome. PMOS.

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Endometriosis Acupuncture Point Protocols
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Endometriosis Acupuncture Point Protocols

Endometriosis is marked by active endometrial tissue growing outside the uterus. Endometriosis can impact the ovaries, uterine walls, fallopian tubes, ureters, bladder, vaginal wall, rectum, colon and even abdominal scar tissue. 10% of those assigned female at birth were diagnosed by laparoscopy with endometriosis

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PCOS Acupuncture Protocols
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PCOS Acupuncture Protocols

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine diseases in those assigned female at birth in menstruating years with a global prevalence of 4-12% (Chen et al., 2023). PCOS affects reproductive health, metabolism, and mental health with symptoms that include: irregular menstruation, acne, thinning hair on the scalp, hirsutism (excess facial, chest and back hair), ovulation dysfunction infertility, polycystic ovaries, insulin resistance, weight gain and pelvic pain.

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