A Pain Free Period…get your life back!
To some a pain free period might sound like crazy talk, but it is not. Acupuncture can relieve almost all of the common complaints that women suffer from
before and during their period. Acupuncture is the safest way to regulate your cycle without using any pharmaceuticals.
What Causes a painful period?
A Western Medicine Explanation
Dysmenorrhea is the medical term for pain with menstruation. There are two main types of dysmenorrhea, “primary” and “secondary.”
The Cleveland Clinic defines Primary Dysmenorrhea as common menstrual cramps that are recurrent and are not due to other diseases.
Symptoms:
- Cramps usually begin one to two days after a woman starts getting her period.
- Pain usually begins 1 or 2 days before or when menstrual bleeding starts and it is felt in the lower abdomen, back, or thighs and can range from mild to severe.
- Pain can typically last 12 to 72 hours and can be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and even diarrhea.
- Common menstrual cramps usually become less painful as a woman ages and may stop entirely if the woman has a baby.
Secondary dysmenorrhea is a pain that is caused by a disorder in the woman’s reproductive organs such as endometriosis, adenomyosis, uterine fibroids, or infection.
Symptoms:
- Pain from secondary dysmenorrhea usually begins earlier in the menstrual cycle and lasts longer than common menstrual cramps.
- Pain is not typically accompanied by nausea, vomiting, fatigue or diarrhea.
A Chinese Medicine Point of View
As a reminder, as I write in all of my posts, when I talk about organs and blood this is strictly in an energetic principle basing all of the information on the traditional Chinese Medicine theories and practices.
In Chinese medicine in order for a “normal” period to occur blood must be abundant and freely flow. In order for blood to move freely we must have a free flow of Liver Qi and Liver Blood. Qi is an energy that carries information from one acupuoint to another throughout the body and Liver Blood is not very different from our Western understanding of blood, it is a substance that flows thorough the body carrying energy and nutrients with it.
Four phases of blood flow during a menstrual cycle.
- During Menstruation: Blood is moving, relies on strong Liver Qi and Liver Blood
- After Menstruation: Blood and Yin are empty
- During mid cycle: Blood and Yin gradually fill up
- Before Menstruation: Yang rises and liver Qi begins to move in preparation to move blood during the period.
Almost all pain from a “primary” dysmenhorrea is caused by liver qi or liver blood stagnation. Pain before the period is usually caused by Liver Qi stagnation, while pain during the period is usually caused by Liver Blood stagnation. Pain after your period is usually caused by some sort of deficiency of either Qi or Blood.
Okay, we know the basic causes now lets fix the problem.
Depending when you suffer from pain during your menstruation an acupuncturist will look at treating different imbalances in your body. If you tend to be a person who has sharp stabbing pains that make you want to lay in a ball and cry then a principle of the treatment is going to be to create movement so the Qi and blood can flow freely.
If you feel rage, anger, and have little to no patience with anyone around you then an acupuncturist will soothe your liver Qi and help support your system so you are calmer and don’t kill anyone! (joking…I hope)
Sometimes your emotions are out of control and you alter from depression and sadness to happiness and uncontrollable joy. This can be frustrating because you don’t know what is going to set you into either state. An acupuncturist will look to balance the organs associated with the emotions in order to regulate your mood.
Most of the time patients are a mix of multiple types of conditions and the key is to find the underlying imbalance. An acupuncturist will ask you all types of questions about your period, your energy, and your entire current and past health history. This can take awhile, but is crucial in order to find the root cause of your pain. Just think a few extra minutes of questions on the first visit could mean that your next cycle could be pain free!
Outside Influences
Some of these imbalances can actually be from outside influences in your life. Whether it is emotional stress, overwork, too much sexual activity, childbirth, or not giving yourself enough time to recover from workouts you can sometimes change the pain in your cycle by modifying your behavior. So not only will an acupuncturist work with you in the treatment room with needles they can help you to identify behavioral habits that might not be helping your condition. Making small changes to these can actually help you speed up your own recovery.
How long does it take?
There is no set time schedule for recovery from any acupuncture treatment, but most issues involved with a painful period can be greatly relieved if not fixed after a few sessions. The goal is to change the imbalances and teach you how to avoid the imbalances from recurring. Once we have you feeling good, balanced and pain free we usually have you come in for a “maintenance” treatment once every 4-6weeks and eventually once every couple of months after that.
The Big Difference: A discussion…
Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine seek to find the root cause of your pain and relieve your pain by fixing the issue, not just treating the symptoms. Some health care professionals recommend putting women on birth control pills to regulate their cycle and relieve their pain. However when you have a teenager who has severe pain from her period most parents don’t feel comfortable putting them on birth control at such a young age. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine can be a natural solution to regulating your cycle and relieving your painful period.
To learn more about how The Maynard Clinic can relieve your painful menstruation schedule an appointment!