NMW Day 5: Menstrual madness supported by Naturopathic Medicine

I treat many women in my prac­tice, in all stages of life from puberty to men­o­pause and through the other side. While we are all sup­posed to be appre­ci­at­ive of our hor­mone cycles, some­times it just sucks to be a woman. (Guys, pay atten­tion for your lovely ladies!). Many times we are told to “suck it up” when we have hor­rendous men­strual cramp­ing, intens­ive bleed­ing aka hem­or­ragh­ing monthly, and that we are “moody” and dif­fi­cult to be around when are are pre­men­strual. For women exper­i­en­cing men­o­pause and the reduc­tion of the capa­city to men­stru­ate, it is no less con­fus­ing and upset­ting. The men­strual cycle can take awhile to ebb and as a res­ult it can be often more intense.

Enter natur­o­pathic medi­cine. We are priv­ileged to study chinese medi­cine (includ­ing acu­punc­ture and chinese herbs) and herbal medi­cine that have the capa­city to sta­bil­ize the mood and reg­u­late men­stru­ation as quickly as blink­ing. Truly, the women who have suffered with severe men­strual cramp­ing and who are unable to leave the house dur­ing their men­strual cycle no longer need to do so, know­ing that there are ways to inter­vene. It’s not just about endur­ing, it can be about improv­ing your qual­ity of life, and also repro­gram­ming some of the key hor­monal sig­nalling from the hypo­thal­amus and pitu­it­ary (brain centres for hor­monal instruc­tion and release) to the ovar­ies and uterus.

You can love your uterus!

How would you address intense men­strual cramping?

This is a slower pro­cess, but ulti­mately speaks to the bal­an­cing of hor­mones and clean­ing up of the liver through­out the month. The liver makes all of our hor­mones from cho­les­terol, and is respons­ible for keep­ing hor­mone cyc­ling going smoothly at the dir­ec­tion of the pitu­it­ary, hypo­thal­amus, and ovar­ies that make things hap­pen. However, in some women, some hor­mones are not released when they should be and there can be some con­flict to put it mildly. In addi­tion to herbal sup­port for pain, there are herbs that can help to assist with reg­u­la­tion. Long-​term suf­fer­ing does not need to occur. Speak with your ND and get relief!