Moving the Needle: How a NESA Alum is Redefining Menopause Treatment for Veterans

With grant support and national recognition, Felice Indindoli is setting a new standard for integrative pain management.

Many women were coming into the acupuncture pain clinic at Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, MA, with classic symptoms of menopause, like hot flashes, joint pain, brain fog, and urinary issues. When Dr. Felice Indindoli, a New England School of Acupuncture (NESA) alum, asked her patients if they had consulted a physician or received treatment for any of their menopausal symptoms, she kept hearing the same response.

“They would often say: ‘I didn’t know I could ask about that—or get treated for it,’” she said. “It was so clear that we have to do better.”

Indindoli is working to change this situation and help more women, especially female veterans, manage pain and symptoms related to menopause. She’s identified gaps in care for menopausal women through her acupuncture pain clinic at the Bedford VA—and has developed more effective approaches for pain management, including acupuncture. She was recently awarded a research grant to study this clinical model and said she hopes her findings can help other VA hospitals improve treatment strategies for women Veterans with pain and menopause.

“Our goal is to help this population get the treatment they need to reduce pain and improve their quality of life during menopause,” Indindoli said.

Indindoli discovered acupuncture when she was dealing with persistent pain from migraines several years ago. When her initial treatments failed, she tried acupuncture because she did not want to take more medication. It proved to be a more effective and lasting solution than other interventions, inspiring her to return to school to become a licensed acupuncturist—and then some. Indindoli earned a Master of Acupuncture in Chinese and Japanese acupuncture from NESA, later obtaining a Master of Pain Research, Education, and Policy from Tufts University School of Medicine, and a Doctorate in Acupuncture from Pacific College of Health Sciences. Last year, she received the Menopause Society Certified Practitioner credential.

She has served as a licensed acupuncturist and pain management specialist at the VA Hospital in Bedford, MA, since 2019. She said the fact that her role exists is a promising sign for the role of acupuncture in medical interventions.

“There’s a vastly improved evidence base for the use of acupuncture, especially in the treatment of pain and other conditions, which has allowed the VA and Department of Defense to bring on staff acupuncturists,” she said.

Indindoli is part of an integrative pain team at the VA that helps veterans address pain issues through a collaborative system drawing from different medical specialties, including acupuncture. She focuses on offering evidence-based, non-pharmacological interventions for veterans dealing with a variety of health issues. During the menopause transition, veterans may be at higher risk for multiple pain diagnoses, mental health issues, and risky opioid prescribing, which can create complexities around pain management, Indindoli explained.

“The specialists on our pain team work together to make sure we’re coordinating care and finding the best approach for complex cases,” she said. “A collaborative, multi-modal approach is the most effective way to treat pain, especially more complex or chronic pain.”

Her focus on menopause grew out of her pain management work at the VA. In 2019, she helped open a women’s care clinic, which is where she started to encounter many women between the ages of 35 and 55 who were experiencing signs of menopause but hadn’t pursued any medical help for their symptoms. She developed a more comprehensive approach to treating these patients, which included acupuncture, menopause education, and referrals to other specialists like OBGYNs, nutritionists, and mental health providers. She has used acupuncture to help her patients improve symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, headaches, brain fog, insomnia, and musculoskeletal pain.

She notes that a multi-modal approach is also helpful for menopause care because it is a complex and long-term change affecting women in many different ways. Veterans often face an even more complicated experience with menopause than their civilian counterparts.

“Women veterans are more likely to experience greater menopausal symptom burden, largely due to co-morbidities such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression related to their military service,” she explained. “Their symptoms tend to be worse, and they face a higher risk of multiple pain diagnoses.”

In 2024, Indindoli won a Pain/Opioid CORE grant to study the treatment model she’s using at the women’s pain clinic to identify best practices for pain management during menopause.

“We want to evaluate how effectively we’re addressing gaps in care through the pain clinic so we can develop a model that can be replicated at other institutions,” she said. “Our project will pinpoint what’s working—and identify opportunities for improvement.”

Indindoli also became the first Doctor of Acupuncture to present at PAINWeek, a leading conference for experts and health care professionals across pain management, when she delivered her talk, “Fire and Ice: Acupuncture for the treatment of Women Veterans with co-morbid pain and menopause.”

“It’s so valuable to help other providers understand that acupuncture can be a powerful solution for women veterans who are struggling with chronic pain and menopause,” she said.