WHY IS CYCLE REGULATING SO IMPORTANT?
Most women in the west suffer from varying degrees of cycle related symptoms every month. For a lot of these women, they feel their life is dictated by their monthly period. Sometimes with only a few days of relief from the many symptoms they have throughout the month. Here is a list of the most common symptoms I see...
Painful periods and heavy cramping
Irregular bleeding
Very heavy bleeding
stop/start bleeding
PMS
Endometriosis
PCOS
Cystic breast
Hormonal Acne
Undiagnosed infertility
Chronic fatigue
Migraine
Low mood
Low labido
In the west we have come to accept these as standard monthly symptoms. Believing that we just have to put up with them, take medication for them, and for some women, be hospitalised. In Chinese Medicine these symptoms are not normal or acceptable. In Chinese Medicine they are a sign of ‘disharmony’ in the body. Everything in Chinese Medicine relates to, and is reflected in the seasons and the cycles of nature. This includes your menstrual cycle. Just like the rhythms in nature, your cycle ‘waxes and wanes’... just like the tides and the seasons, just like phases of the moon. Your hormones rise and they fall, your body temperature rises and falls, blood builds and it sheds…. On and on this happens, each month, in rhythm with your body, lifestyle and environment.
When there is disharmony in your life, it will most definitely have an impact on your body and disrupt your monthly rhythm. This could be stress factors affecting your adrenals and therefore causing an overproduction of hormones creating severe PMS, or worse still, over ripe eggs unable to fertilize at ovulation. Anxiety around a personal or work situation can cause you to lose sleep, therefore not allowing the body enough time to restore and rejuvenate and your Yin becomes depleted. Even the lack of a certain type of food/nutrient that your body specifically needs to function fully, can have an effect on your cycle, causing blood or Qi deficiency. Whatever the cause, the rhythm is broken and chaos pursues. This might just start with one part of your cycle being affected, but left over time other parts will be disrupted too. But don't worry, this can be rectified, or at the very least, dramatically improved.
Asking questions about your cycle will give information on the type of imbalance you have as well as its severity. We can learn if there is too much heat (excess yang), too much damp (excess yin), not enough blood (blood/yin deficiency) or extreme pain (blood & Qi stagnation), from the symptoms you get throughout the month. From there we decide what is needed to tune, regulate and balance the flow in each phase.
The different phases of the cycle are important, so I’ll explain a little more about this...
The female menstrual cycle is broken into 4 phases, so each week of a 28 day cycle represents a different aspect. There has to be support and encouragement of the natural movements of yin, yang, blood and qi at their specific phase of the menstrual cycle. Whether this is to move blood, build yin, move Qi or create warmth/yang (to name a few). This is the foundation of all successful treatments of cycle regulating. Whether this is just to relieve symptoms or to allow and support conception. This means we should eat, drink, exercise and live our lives according to the phase we are in so as to support the ‘action’ of the phase the body is in. If we go against this, it affects that rhythm, phase and action. Here are the phases…
Week 1 (cycle day 1-7) BLOOD PHASE
The lining is shed on cycle day 1. As that is happening, a new lining is being formed. All hormones are at their lowest at this time.
Treatment is based on moving blood, primarily using the liver meridian (blood moving and nourishing points)
Week 2 (cycle day 7-14) YIN PHASE
The follicles (FSH hormone) are being stimulated so they can grow and release an egg ready for ovulation. Estrogen (yin hormone) is rising, building the rest of the lining to support a potential fertilised egg.
Treatment is to build yin (estrogen) using the spleen, kidney and liver meridian (yin points)
Week 3 (cycle day 14-21) YANG PHASE
Ovulation happens when the yin transforms to yang. Estrogen (yin) drops and Progesterone (a yang hormone) starts to rise. This is the peak of the cycle.
Treatment is to help the transformation from yin to yang using primarily the Kidney meridian (yin & yang points)
Week 4 (cycle day 21-28) Qi PHASE
Progesterone (yang) rises in the body. Your body temperature rises (yang is heat) and the progesterone allows the body to hold onto the embryo. If there is no embryo then the progesterone levels drop allowing the menses to get ready to shed.
Treatment involves boosting Yang. A ‘warm womb’ is needed to hold an embryo. If there is no embryo, then yang falls (progesterone drops) and the lining prepares to shed… And a new cycle begins.
I hope this gives you an understanding of the rhythm of the menstrual cycle. It's important to get to know your body intimately. Tune into what it's telling you, what foods your craving, if you feel you need rest, or maybe movement feels right. Trust your body, it knows what's best for you!