This blog is part 10 of an 11 article series of 11 New Year’s resolutions that actually work and WILL improve your pelvic health. Get the full list of all 11 New Year’s resolutions HERE.
What’s worse? A few tiny needles the width of a human hair or experiencing that embarrassing “wet pants” look that comes with urinary urgency (and other symptoms of urinary incontinence)?
We don’t know about you, but for women with urinary incontinence, a few tiny acupuncture needles may seem like a very small price to pay for a reduction in symptoms. Acupuncture, a well-respected healing technique from the East, has long been considered an excellent “middle of the road” option for women with urinary incontinence symptoms like urinary urgency, frequency, and leakage. This conservative therapy has also proven effective for women with pelvic organ prolapse. More importantly, acupuncture is a wonderful solution for women who, for whatever reasons, choose not to take medication or cannot make lifestyle changes, such as weight loss and smoking cessation.
What is Acupuncture, Exactly?
If you are considering using acupuncture to solve symptoms such as urinary urgency and frequency, then you probably want to know exactly what this kind of therapy entails. We don’t blame you! When someone starts talking about using a bunch of needles to alleviate symptoms of urinary incontinence, you probably want to know more–specifically, the details!
According to the National Institutes of Health, acupuncture is defined as follows:
“The term ‘acupuncture’ describes a family of procedures involving the stimulation of points on the body using a variety of techniques. The acupuncture technique that has been most often studied scientifically involves penetrating the skin with thin, solid, metallic needles that are manipulated by the hands or by electrical stimulation. Practiced in China and other Asian countries for thousands of years, acupuncture is one of the key components of traditional Chinese medicine.”
The use of acupuncture is very widespread–more than you may think. According to the National Health Interview Survey, in 2007 an estimated 3.1 million U.S. adults and 150,000 children received acupuncture treatments within the past year. And that number has only been on the rise since the 2007 study.
As for actual treatments, practitioners use either very fine acupuncture needles or mild electrical stimulation (meant to mimic the stimulation provided by needle insertion) to increase the flow of energy in the body. Needles are inserted at specific points located along meridian lines that circulate energy throughout the body, and specific combinations of points can be used to create healing effects. While many people know about the use of acupuncture for pain relief, fewer people recognize the effectiveness of this conservative therapy for other conditions, such as urinary incontinence, constipation, and pelvic organ prolapse.
How Effective is Acupuncture for Urinary Urgency and Other Symptoms?
Acupuncture has been shown to be just as effective for relieving urinary urgency and other symptoms of urinary incontinence as dry or behavior therapy (Oregon Health and Science University). According to researchers Sandra Emmons, M.D. and Lesley Otto, M.D., “Acupuncture perhaps can offer a middle ground for the appropriate patient who prefers not to take daily medication but is unable to commit to the active involvement of behavioral therapy.”
If you have found the side effects of drug therapy intolerable and, for whatever reasons, cannot make lifestyle or behavioral changes to alleviate your symptoms of women’s urinary incontinence, you may want to look into acupuncture. In addition to board-certified acupuncturists, many physicians also now practice medical acupuncture. Check with your family doctor for a referral, and check with your insurance company to see if acupuncture services are covered. Some insurance companies will cover acupuncture services provided by an in-network physician, but not by an acupuncturist, so be sure to ask.
Most acupuncture “programs” for relieving urinary urgency, frequency, and leakage last from five to eight weeks, and you should see a noticeable reduction of your symptoms within that time period. Because each woman has differing symptom patterns and severity, your physician or acupuncturist will design a specialized program just for your needs.
If acupuncture sounds like a conservative therapy you would like to try, but maybe scares you a little bit, just remember that acupuncture needles are very fine–about the width of one of your hairs! That’s pretty tiny!
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