Adolescent Endometriosis-Related Pelvic Pain Treated with Acupuncture: Two Case Reports

Ellen Silver Highfield, Marc R Laufer, Rosa N Schnyer, Catherine E Kerr, Phaedra Thomas, Peter M Wayne
Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · 2006 · vol. 12(3) , pp. 317–322 · doi:10.1089/acm.2006.12.317 · PMID:16646732 · W2065765616
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Two adolescent girls with endometriosis-related chronic pelvic pain experienced modest improvements in pain, headaches, nausea, and fatigue after a course of acupuncture treatments without reported adverse effects.

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Chronic pelvic pain in adolescents accounts for 10% of outpatient gynecology visits, and 70% of adolescent patients whose pelvic pain is unresponsive to initial therapy have endometriosis. To date, there has been no published research investigating the use of acupuncture for adolescents with chronic pelvic pain and/or endometriosis. METHODS: This paper presents two case reports describing the impact of a course of acupuncture on adolescent girls with endometriosis-related chronic pelvic pain of more than 1 year. RESULTS: Both patients, undergoing between 9 and 15 treatments over a 7- to 12-week period, experienced modest improvement in pain as measured by oral self-reports of pain on a scale from 1 to 10, as well as self or family-reported improvement in headaches, nausea and fatigue. No adverse effects were reported. CONCLUSIONS: These case reports provide preliminary evidence that acupuncture may be an acceptable and safe adjunct treatment therapy for some adolescents with endometriosis-related pelvic pain refractory to standard antiendometriosis therapies. These observations suggest that a prospective, randomized controlled trial of the safety and efficacy of acupuncture for this population may be warranted.

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Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_pain

MeSH descriptors

Acupuncture Therapy Endometriosis Pelvic Pain Activities of Daily Living Acupuncture Therapy Adolescent Endometriosis Female Humans Pain Measurement Pelvic Pain Pelvic Pain Treatment Outcome

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (24)

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