Women's Health & Fertility
The phrase “women’s health” is about much more than fertility and menstruation. Most conditions are a complex combination of symptoms including digestive issues, emotional blocks, stress, chronic pain and hormone imbalance. These impact every area of a woman’s life. When a woman comes in for fertility support we address the whole and work towards balance, always searching for the root cause instead of just treating symptoms. In my west village practice I find acupuncture and Chinese medicine to be incredibly effective at addressing women’s reproductive health issues. I have been with many of my patients through healthy pregnancies, deliveries, and postpartum care, menstrual problems, and menopause journeys. Acupuncture works by regulating the nervous and endocrine systems, balancing hormones, improving blood flow to the reproductive organs, reducing the stress response, and validating and considering the emotions involved - making it one of the most comprehensive and versatile tools available for women's health at every stage of life.
Acupuncture has a long and well-documented history of supporting women's health across every stage of life, and modern scientific research is increasingly validating what traditional mediciane has practiced for centuries.
PMS and menstrual pain - A systematic review and meta-analysis of 10 randomized controlled trials found that acupuncture was superior to all controls across eight of those trials, significantly outperforming both sham acupuncture and medications including progestin and anxiolytics. (1) For painful periods specifically, a meta-analysis of 60 randomized controlled trials investigating acupuncture for dysmenorrhea found that acupuncture more effectively reduced menstrual pain and associated symptoms compared to no treatment or the use of NSAIDs such as aspirin and ibuprofen. (2)
PCOS and menstrual irregularity - a randomized controlled trial of 86 women with obesity-type PCOS found that abdominal acupuncture significantly improved menstrual frequency, reduced BMI and waist-to-hip ratio, and improved endocrine and metabolic function — outperforming metformin on several measures. (3) A 2025 systematic review and network meta-analysis of 51 studies involving 4,181 participants further confirmed that acupuncture and its combined therapies significantly lowered key hormonal indicators including LH, LH/FSH ratio, and testosterone, while also improving metabolic and body weight indicators. (4)
Fertility and IVF - a major overview of the literature published in Frontiers in Public Health analyzed 312 original randomized controlled trials involving 65,388 participants. The re-meta-analysis found that acupuncture was superior to sham acupuncture in improving clinical pregnancy rates in women undergoing IVF, and that when compared to no adjunctive treatment, acupuncture also improved ongoing pregnancy rates. (5) A more recent and comprehensive 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis confirmed these findings: acupuncture significantly improved both biochemical and clinical pregnancy rates compared to sham acupuncture and blank controls, while also providing better pain management during procedures and reduced anxiety levels throughout the IVF process. (6)
Menopause - the Acupuncture in Menopause (AIM) Study - a pragmatic randomized controlled trial of 209 perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, funded by the NIH's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) - produced some of the most compelling long-term data to date. Hot flash frequency declined by 36.7% at six months in the acupuncture group compared to a 6% increase in the control group, with statistically significant clinical improvement observed after just three acupuncture treatments and maximum effects occurring after a median of eight treatments. Persistent improvements were also seen across multiple quality-of-life measures, with benefits lasting at least six months beyond the end of treatment. (7)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21609380/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5999465/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23676106/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11915742/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33959581/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0020748925001063
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27023860/
“Lou Lou is the best! She helped me prepare my body for and then during a healthy pregnancy. And overall, she brings joy and a focus on self-care into my life. She's a balance to living in New York, and I love going to see her.”