In western society today, we have come to accept abnormal periods as the norm. But have you ever considered that its possible to have a great, pain free, regular cycle?

There are many variables when it comes to menstrual cycles and menstrual irregularities, ranging from painful periods to having no period at all, and everything in between. A healthy menstrual cycle should be between 27-29 days, with no pain or PMS, a moderate flow (not too heavy or too light) and a healthy red colour (not brown or pink and not clots), with a 3 to 5 day bleed and no spotting either side. This is what we all deserve to have, and with a healthy lifestyle and regular acupuncture we should be able to achieve it. Japanese acupuncture for menstrual irregularities may assist in this  by identifying and treating the core pattern of disharmony, and repairing and maintaining the functionality of the whole system.
 
Some of the conditions that we see at Kishi Acupuncture are:

•  Menstrual Migraines (may present at ovulation as well)

•  Menstrual Nausea and / or vomiting (or diarrhea / constipation)

•  Menorrhagia (heavy or excessive bleeding)

•  Amenorrhea (absence of a period)

•  Polymenorrhea (frequent periods- less than 21 day cycles)

•  Oligomenorrhea (prolonged cycles greater than 35 days)

•  Metrorrhagia (abnormal bleeding, or bleeding between cycles)

•  Dysmenorrhea (painful periods)

•  Long or Short menstrual bleeding (more than 8 days or less than 2 days bleeding)

•  Infertility

•  Menopause and Perimenopause

•  PCOS

•  Endometriosis

•  Adenomyoma

•  PMS  pain and mood swings

•  Acne

At Kishi Acupuncture, we provide individualised care specific to your case. The same menstrual disharmony can have a completely different underlying cause from person to person. In clinic, a thorough assessment of your presenting symptoms, pulse, and Hara (Japanese diagnostic technique using stomach palpation) is performed at the beginning of each acupuncture session, and a personalised acupuncture prescription is applied using advanced Japanese acupuncture techniques.

In Chinese medicine, the liver is considered to store the menstrual blood, and a disharmony of the liver may lead to a multitude of menstrual irregularities including painful periods, PMS with mood swings, cramps, headaches / migraines, sore breasts, and dark cotted menstrual blood. The Stomach and Spleen which we refer to as the Earth Element can be impacted as well leading to heavy or irregular bleeding, and bleeding in-between cycles due to the mechanism of the spleen not holding the blood in the vessels. From a biomedical perspective, the pituitary gland plays an essential role in the menstrual cycle and is often the main offender involved in cycle irregularities. There are many more factors that can contribute to irregular periods, please contact us in clinic for more information..
 
More about the pituitary gland...
The Pituitary Gland is a small pea sized gland that sits at the base of the brain and is essentially considered to be the ‘control tower’ of the endocrine system. It plays an integral role in fertility, menstruation, menopause and many other hormonal systems like thyroid function and even Blood Sugar regulation in Diabetes Insipidus. The hormones produced in the pituitary gland that are directly involved with menstruation and fertility are Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinising Hormone (LH). FSH stimulates the ovaries to release estrogen, and is responsible for growing and maturing ovarian follicles. LH is responsible for ovulation (the release of the egg from the follicle). These two gonadotrophins work together in maintaining a healthy reproductive / menstrual cycle, and an imbalance of either hormone may lead to infertility or menstrual disharmonies as listed above.

How does your pituitary become imbalanced you may ask? There are various causes of what we refer to as a pituitary gland imbalance, some common patterns I have seen in clinic are, rapid fluctuations in hormonal levels (ie, birth control/ morning after pill), chronic- long term sinus infections, physical trauma to the face or head, and you guessed it! our good old friend STRESS!!
Constant ongoing stress can wreak havoc on the pituitary gland and endocrine system, this occurs due to the Hypothalamic- Pituitary- Adrenal Axis stress response, which can impair the production and release of FSH and LH and impact your menstrual and fertility cycles.