Menopause & Traditional Chinese Medicine- Working In Harmony With A Natural Change

Women’s bodies are amazing works of art and are capable of the most miraculous feats of strength and complexity. With that beauty comes the natural seasons of change that are most often looked at as burdens or diseases when they should be celebrated.

In this blog post, I want to talk about the season of menopause. For some women, this is seen as a time of great loss, when they can no longer have children. For other women, this is a time to celebrate no more periods. But for all women, this is a natural change, not one of all loss or declines but a transition from the woman who carries the babies in her body and arms to the woman who carries the babies with her wisdom, her home, and her heart.

Generally speaking most of the cycles of our life with the female reproductive system should be smooth and mostly non-events. We should be able to move in and out of them without much thought. Periods should be smooth, mostly painless, not too long, and emotionally we should feel stable. This should be the same with menopause. The transition should be gradual and symptoms minimal.

So why is this not the case for some women? Why do some women suffer from severe symptoms like insomnia, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, memory problems, or osteoporosis? In a nutshell-there is an imbalance and most often this imbalance is with Kidney Yin, Yang and Essence.

From the moment we are born this can begin to decline but what we do throughout our life can greatly affect how yin, yang, and essence are supported. Our diet, stress levels, our parent’s energy, overconsumption of alcohol, tea, or smoking, and sleep habits can all affect the outcome of what menopause may be like.

This is where acupuncture and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) can help restore harmony to the system and alleviate menopause symptoms. By deciding what is at the heart of the imbalance, is it more yin or yang deficiency, is it both, we can then develop a plan to support that area. Through herbal medicines, food therapy, and lifestyle changes we can greatly reduce the experienced symptoms and restore the balance. It doesn’t have to be an uncomfortable to dreaded time of life but just another season to celebrate.