With so many women turning to ancient Chinese medicine to help regulate and balance their menstrual cycle and hormones, I decided to give it a go too.
Hormones can be a pretty funny thing, right? They can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. In my case, my hormones have been a constant enemy of mine for roughly 2 and a half years now.
It all started a year (or so) after I graduated and went into full-time employment. During that time I was at the peak of my fitness obsession and working all the hours under the sun. For me, fitness was my downtime. It was the only time I escaped working my full-time job and juggling my blog on the side. When I think about it now, I was working 14-15 hour days and filling my weekends with more work and pushing my body through CrossFit and excessive HIIT workouts – all whilst surviving on a pathetic amount of sleep. Did I know exactly what I was doing to my body back then? Absolutely not.
As soon as I started experiencing unusual symptoms with my menstrual cycle, I decided to start trying every ‘treatment’ in the book. Well, almost. From taking my body off the contraceptive pill (read more about that here) to cycling seeds for hormonal balance, you name it and I probably did it.
Sadly, I’m yet to find the magic answer and despite many hospital appointments, tears, patronising Doctors and refused blood tests to check my hormone levels, I keep coming back to the holistic approach.
So when I first heard about Chinese medicine and how many women have been successfully tweaking their hormones with acupuncture, I decided to give it a go. I had nothing to lose apart from a lot of money, right? Holy heck, who knew how expensive weekly herbs and acupuncture could be?!
So with Chinese medicine and
After many Google searches, I decided to book an appointment with Dr Xiao Ling Qi, fully-qualified practitioner and owner of Yanhuang Healthcare in Southsea – whom confirmed that a growing number of women are turning to acupuncture to treat symptoms of hormonal imbalances. From irregular periods to fertility issues.
What is Chinese Medicine?
Chinese medicine has been around for approximately 3,500 years and in recent years, has become more popular and accepted in modern time. It’s one of the most common healing systems in the world. But how does it work?
Chinese herbs are utilised to preserve health, prevent illness and rebuild vitality to the body. The belief in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), is that all the organs in our body are interrelated to each other and are connected internally and externally.
In TCM, the essential energy within us is considered our “Qi”. The Qi flows along pathways which are known as “channels” that run the length of our body, limbs and to each of our organs. When the body is in a state of health, the Qi within us is balanced and in a harmonious state. But when it’s not, an imbalance in our body occurs and can lead to many different types of conditions such as allergies, poor immune system, headaches, migraines, digestive issues, anxiety, depression, joint pain, fatigue, irregular bleeding, poor blood flow and infertility to name a few.
There has been some controversy surrounding the safety of Chinese herbal medicine in recent years and this is in large part down to uneducated use and self-prescription. It’s extremely important that you consult a trained and licensed practitioner to ensure the herbal preparation is suited to your body composition and health issues. Which is exactly what I have done.
The herbs themselves are gentle but powerful medicines. The TCM way is gentle and the skill, training and experience of the practitioner
How can Chinese Medicine and acupuncture help support my menstrual cycle and hormones?
As I’ve previously mentioned, Chinese herbs are formulated to maintain health and prevent illness by creating balance and harmony within the body. Personalised herbal formulas can help in many ways by strengthening our immune system, boosting our energy levels and relaxing our bodies when we are feeling anxious or having trouble falling asleep (but those are just a few examples).
In my case
With regards to acupuncture, this uses solid, filiform needles that are safe, disposable and are approximately the size of a strand of hair. The needles are inserted at specific points along the channels of the body. Each of the points help regulate the flow of Qi of the channel, along with their corresponding organs.
Does Chinese Medicine really work?
Well, that was my question exactly.
Whilst it’s too early to tell, what I did notice was how personal and tailored my appointment was with Dr Qi.
As soon as I sat down, Dr Qi had me fill out a form with as much detail as possible. She then questioned me, with what felt like, absolutely everything. How long are my periods? What colour are they? How long do they last? Have I experienced any trauma over the past few years? What do I do to unwind? What’s my job? What does my diet look like? How’s the quality of my sleep?
During my questioning, Dr Qi also diagnosed my pulse on both wrists at three locations: cun, guan and chi. On your left hand, cun represents the heart, guan represents the liver and chi represents the kidney. On the right
After a few minutes of pulse concentration, Dr Qi was able to get a clear understanding of my health which led to further questions.
According to Dr Qi, my body is prone to stress (and has been for quite a while) and as a result, my hormones are unbalanced. But that’s not it… To add to my problems, my body is also having difficulty regulating blood flow (which explains irregular bleeding) and creating sufficient energy flow around my body – all thanks to my wonderful whacky hormones.
As Dr Qi explained it in TCM way, my body has too much yang and not enough yin. Too much stress, and not enough peace. Too much work, and not enough downtime. Too much screen time, and not enough books. Too much exercise, and not enough yoga. Too much chaos, and not enough calm. Get it? I need to learn how to balance my yin and yang.
So with my diagnosis out on the table (quite literally), Dr Qi then told me my best options moving forward… Herbal teas, pills and acupuncture – as often as I can. The acupuncture, that is. The pills I need to take every day, 3 times a day.
We spoke about the different types of herbal teas from the flowers to the powders, and based on pricing, I decided to go with the powder and pill form. Whilst the powders and pills are still just as effective, the plant teas do
After we decided what herbal medicine I would be taking (a personalised prescription to be precise), I headed for my first acupuncture session which lasted roughly 40 minutes (but only because I was short on time).
Whilst I can’t say it’s healed me overnight, I definitely noticed an improvement in my cycle two days after my first acupuncture session and supplementation of the herbs – which may or may not have helped encourage my very late period for January. Which by the way, isn’t normal for me.
To see permanent improvements, Dr Qi tells me I would need to wait at least 3 months to start seeing adjustments to my cycle and hormones. At the moment, I’m currently taking my herbal tea
As well as that, I also need to focus on reducing my stress levels as much as possible. This means cutting down on any intense exercise, incorporating some yoga and meditation into my weekly routine (wish me luck) and avoiding any inflammatory foods. I.e, sugar, alcohol, dairy, etc.
Although I’m still a little sceptical when it comes to Chinese medicine, I’m determined to stick with it. Because if anything can help me tune my hormones, I think Chinese medicine might just be it.
3 comments
I’m really glad you wrote about this as I also suffer with hormonal imbalance and an irregular menstrual cycle. After several hospital appointments, I feel like I have come away with very few answers or solutions, but your article has definitely given me food for thought and I may look into going down the route of Chinese medicine.
I’m really glad it’s helped you in some way Gemma. If you’re on Instagram, then my DM’s are always open for a chat. I defintely believe TCM helped me – it’s just unfortunate that I had to stop because of Covid19 and since then, my hormones have got a lot worse again.
Hey Hanna
Wow I came across this as I had my first session yesterday and yes it’s great but like your therapist mine did exactly the same as yours did. I must say she told me about the medicine and advised I use this! I suffer from not sleeping and headaches that wake me up, also hot at night, and other things too….
The medicine was for 2 weeks at £70 I nearly fell off my chair!!
I want to buy it but the cost of consultation then treatment was already a shock! She has told me I need to come back every week for at least 6 weeks, I will do it…
My question is should I take these tablets?? Did they help? Or was it the Acupunture?
Funny when I read this every word was like I was writing it as I’m going through the same! Good write up! PS.. I’m 49 and at the start of my menapause too!!