ACUPUNCTURE HELPS WOMENS SURGICAL PAIN. Acupuncture helps to improve recovery times and improves pain control following gynecologic and abdominal surgeries according to a new study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, and  in a study published in Pain, the Journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Researchers also note that acupuncture reduced opioid side-effects including nausea, dizziness, sedation, pruritus and urinary retention.