About half the population menstruates at some point in their life and of those people, many experiences some negative effects of the hormonal changes. Despite its prevalence, western medicine can do little to support people with these transitions other than offering hormonal birth control, which can wreak havoc on many systems in the body.
Fortunately, Chinese medicine has been helping people achieve balance with their menstrual cycles for thousands of years. How does it work?
While there are a few patterns that can be at the root of menstrual disharmonies, we will talk about the two most common, liver qi stagnation and blood deficiency.
Liver qi stagnation is most often the result of too much stress. That energy gets stored in the body and begins to build up pressure like water building up against a dam. Without appropriate free flow in the body this building of pressure begins to put strain on the internal systems. In these instances you may experience cramping before your cycle begins, headaches in the frontal or temporal areas of the head that are sharp in nature and severe anger and irritability. We can think of the onset of menses as the dam breaking, once the blood starts to flow that energy has somewhere to go and symptoms subside. Acupuncture is beneficial for redirecting that energy in healthy ways and moving the qi before it gets to critical level. This pattern is the easiest to treat and one can expect to see massive improvement in 3-4 visits. Generally people choose to come in the week before their cycle once the initial round of treatment is complete to help everything stay smooth, however if your cycle has just gotten a bit intense due to acute stressors in your life then after a couple visits you may not need follow up treatment.
Blood deficiency is the second most common pattern with symptoms of insomnia just before or during your period, dull, aching headaches, heightened anxiety, cramping that starts during your bleed or after you have finished and general fatigue during your cycle. We consider this a deficiency pattern (as opposed to stagnation which is excessive) so it can sometimes take a bit longer to treat as we need to build the body up. Fortunately there are a number of points that help the body take in the food you are eating to produce blood and I will always offer some dietary advice to help build blood if this is your pattern. This pattern is also highly treatable and after 2-3 initial visits if you continue to work blood building foods into your diet you may not need to come back for follow up visits.
No matter what your pattern, raspberry leaf tea tones and tightens the pelvic muscles and can be very helpful in lessoning cramps. Peppermint essential oils on the forehead or temporal region may improve headaches and bioavailable iron rich foods such as beef liver or green leafy vegetables consumed regularly will help diminish the symptoms of anxiety and insomnia.
I have been fortunate in my career to see a number of clients with PMDD come in with debilitating menstrual symptoms. Every single one transitioned into a regular, pain and depression free cycle within just a couple months of treatments. It is an absolute honour to help people get more in touch with their bodies and enjoy the natural rhythms as we are intended.