Pelvic Floor Pain

Does Acupuncture Dry needling help pelvic pain?

Most people don’t know that acupuncture can help all kinds of pelvic floor pain as well as other unexplained pains or dysfunction down below. Anyone of either gender or non-binary can experience pelvic floor pain regardless of having given birth or not.

If you’ve come across this, you are probably already working with a pelvic floor physical therapist. There are many great pelvic floor PTs and there are people who are able to resolve their issues with PT. 

But what if that isn’t your story? If you’re already working with a pelvic floor specialist but you’re still struggling, yes acupuncture/dry needling may help. 

My approach to treating pelvic floor issues is a full body thought process. No muscle works alone and the pelvic floor is no different. Perhaps your hip flexors are weak, maybe your diaphragm, a muscle of respiration, is stuck, maybe your sacrum is immobile. All or any of these things along with a multitude of other muscle groups could be inhibiting your progress. 

I’d encourage you to come in and seek treatment as soon as possible. 

Case Study

A 40 year old woman came in complaining of intermittent sharp pain right at center front of her pubic bone. She is a nurse and is both on her feet and sits a lot, she also presents with an athletic build and was disappointed she couldn’t work out anymore. 

She first had an assessment with an orthopedic doctor and surgeon who referred her to a pelvic floor physical therapist. Frustrated by nearly a year of physical therapy and hardly any improvement, she decided to try my method of orthopedic acupuncture. 

The first thing I asked is if she also had lower back pain. She was surprised that I would ask and she said yes, but that the pelvic pain was first and foremost important to her. After assessing and treating her on her first visit, I discovered her Psoas muscle, which is a deep hip flexor that connects the pelvis to the lower back, was both tight and weak. This was greatly contributing to the lower back pain and I had to address it first as a start to the treatment for the pelvic pain. 

The next thing I noticed was how she was breathing, rather shallowly and mostly in her chest. The Psoas has a connection to the diaphragm and for the Psoas to truly relax and function properly, I had to help her breathe correctly. Traditional acupuncture works beautifully for this. 

I asked her to return in a week once she had healed from the first session along with some breath work I gave her as homework. On the second and third sessions, I was able to see what was most likely the cause of the pelvic pain. Her sacrum which is in the back of the hip, was so tight it was immobile. Focusing treatment on releasing fascial adhesions there and treating the gluteal muscles along with more hip flexors finally got rid of the pain. 

Soon after, I received a message from her telling me that she was able to get back to her workouts. 

While I can’t guarantee with complete certainty that I can relieve your pelvic problem too, I do believe it’s worth it to give it a shot. With over a decade of experience, I’ve only been successful in working with pelvic floor pain patients. With my full body approach it’s possible that the other practitioners are missing something or you’re having a hard time engaging certain muscles which can be helped with neurofunctional acupuncture.