Eastern Medicine: Long Lost Medicine for Menopause?

While menopause is finally getting the attention it deserves, there is still a lack of resources being offered in the holistic space, outside of exercise and nutrition and a few cherry picked Western herbs. That leaves a glaring deficit in resources to treat symptoms like dryness, fatigue, heat, insomnia, anxiety, etc.

In the West, Menopause is seen as a pathology that requires treatment, or a hormone deficiency. But in many cultures, it signals a transition from the Maiden to the Wise Woman. There is much less reliance on hormone replacement therapy, and more emphasis on holistic care that doesn’t seek to maintain pre-menopausal hormone levels, but usher in a new blueprint.

This post isn’t to malign HRT, or suggest there is something wrong with it. However, I think we should ask if reintroducing hormones that are naturally waning should be the first and only tool offered. To be clear, HRT is helpful, but it is not a HOLISTIC treatment. It focuses on sex hormones progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone, without taking into consideration adrenals, thyroid, gut, lifestyle, stress, and relationships.

While thousands of women have gotten  symptomatic relief from debilitating symptoms with the use of HRT, it misses so many pieces of the puzzle. It’s not a root cause treatment, despite being sold as such. Beyond that, there are women, such as breast cancer survivors that can not use HRT. There are women who choose not to. What tools do they have?

It’s not widely known that Eastern Medicine provides deep and ancient wisdom and support for this critical stage in a woman’s life. Not only easing symptoms of menopause, but balancing all aspects of the body to create a deeper reservoir of health for the next phase.

The Eastern perspective is a macrocosm. It looks at the body as a whole, which is why we don’t parse out specific hormones and try to target them. When we treat the body, we treat it as a whole, and the body knows what to do with this input. It begins to balance hormones naturally, as the pieces fall back into place. It’s difficult for some women to approach their body this way. For instance, without a hormone panel to tell them exactly where they are deficient or over producing, they feel they are not getting “the best” treatment. While anyone is encouraged to understand their hormones and assess them at many stages in their lives. It is not required to get life-changing results with acupuncture and herbs.

From the Eastern lens:

Women will naturally begin to decline in Kidney Yin and Yang. We can think of our Kidney energy as our back-up battery. Kidney energy provides our essence from birth, and different factors can either help preserve and build this energy, or deplete it faster.

So what is Kidney Yin and Yang?

Kidney Yang, could be equated loosely with metabolism, progesterone, and cortisol. I call it the “sunshine energy”.  It’s the energy that helps us get out of bed, that warms the body, that allows us to live fully. Yang is intangible, but when it’ s low, we feel it. We might have chronic low back aches, knee pain, difficulty warming up, fatigue, and poor appetite.

Kidney Yin is tangible. It’s a nourishing fluid in the body that takes over in the evening as Yang wanes. It’s like the water we put in a swamp cooler to bring the temperature down. It nourishes tissue, anchors the spirit, helps the body rest. It’s not “water” per se. It’s a thicker fluid, more closely related to plasma or interstitial fluid. As more information comes out, i’d liken it to EZ water, or exclusionary zone water. A negatively charged fluid in the body, required for all biological processes. We will discuss this 4th phase water in another blog, as I feel Western Science is finally understanding what the Chinese knew for thousands of years. You can read more about that here: https://bio4climate.org/article/water-isnt-what-you-think-it-is-the-fourth-phase-of-water-by-gerald-pollack/

When Kidney Yin is deficient, we experience dryness and heat-especially in the evening when Yin takes over. We might have more joint pain, Insomnia, UTI’s, hot flashes, etc. One pattern of disharmony might be: Kidney Yin deficiency w/ fire flaring or empty heat. However, there is no one exact pattern, but rather individual patterns for each woman. They might also have an underlying pattern of Spleen Qi deficiency, Liver disharmony or stagnation, Yang Deficiency, Blood-Heat, etc. Thus why Chinese medicine is, in my opinion, the BEST option to treat the WHOLE body during menopause. We not only treat the symptoms present with menopause, but any other issues at the root.

Most women are stressed, not nourished, possibly still recovering from trauma or big life events such as divorce, and/or raising children, and working full-time. Just prescribing hormones doesn’t do things that acupuncture and herbs can do, such as calm the nervous system and give the body space to heal and balance. Hormones might reduce symptoms but they don’t help improve metabolic function, restore balance to the liver, or strengthen the thyroid and adrenals.

Acupuncture and herbs were beautifully designed to STRENGTHEN our life force, CALM our nervous system, NOURISH fluids, and BALANCE the entire body.

So while it might seem that menopause is a HORMONE DEFICIENCY, it is in fact a natural process of transitioning out of our reproductive years when the ovaries are in charge of hormone production. Remaining fertile is no longer necessary and most cases, wanted. So why are we supplementing with these hormones?

The truth is, most women are overburdened and have been taught to never slow down, listen to their body, or take time for themselves. Then, in menopause, we are told we’re deficient and just take these hormones so you can continue to be productive. Meanwhile, most women are running on empty and menopause shines a light on this fact. Hormones are given so we can continue to GO-GO-GO, without pausing to reflect on what our body is actually trying to tell us. The adrenals are taxed, and the thyroid also begins to struggle. Blood sugar might become out-of-balance and elevated as well. Taking hormones can’t restore balance to any of these areas in a vacuum. Women have to change the way they operate, moving from a masculine way of operating into a more feminine energy. Slowing way down, nourishing the body, removing parts of our life that our out of sync with our core essence. This stage is BY DESIGN, to help us connect more with ourselves, rather than continuing to people please and over-function.

If you are curious about how to get back in balance, book a consult today!