Think you’ve got to sit down and shut up about menstrual health issues? Writer Evie Muir says that trying acupuncture is the one thing that’s changed her period experience.
I’ve just had the best period of my life. That’s not a sentence I ever thought I’d be able to write. In fact, it’s probably something few can say, given how many of us live with chronic menstrual conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis. In my case, however,living with premenstrual exacerbation (PME) has been like living with a monthly curse.
I was informally diagnosed with PME by a former trauma therapist in 2018. It’s a condition in which people with pre-existing mental health issues experience exacerbated symptoms during and in the run-up to menstruation. Having lived with conditions such as borderline personality disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and recurrent depression since early adolescence, my symptoms of emotional instability, insomnia, brain fog, anxiety and panic attacks have usually escalated to a debilitating extent in the weeks before and during my period.
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PME has forced me to adapt both my work and social life around my cycle – reducing my capacity to look after myself and heal from trauma. I’ve long since resigned myself to the fact that the only thing I could control about this debilitating menstrual health condition was my own acceptance of it; the lack of an official diagnosis has meant that treatment options are limited to being prescribed the pill or antidepressants.
And trying to access treatment for PME has been retraumatising, thanks to the historical legacy of institutional racism and misogyny that continues to manifest in the way people of colour are treated for such issues.
Recently, however, things have changed. After a lifetime of unsatisfactory appointments, I’ve turned to holistic medicine and finally found a sense of safety. Rather than a speedy 10-minute consultation over the phone, I’ve started having acupuncture – a practice that comes with an hour’s discussion.
Acupuncture for periods: what are the benefits?
An established treatment for around 2,000 years, acupuncture explores the physical, emotional, social, and environmental factors that can contribute to illness and treats it using needles placed at specific points in the body. While few lab studies exist on the subject, plenty of practitioners recommend trying the practice for menstrual conditions, menopause, fertility issues and wider gynaecological problems.
Dr Dan Jiang, a traditional Chinese medicine consultant based in Sheffield, specialises in an acu-herb approach that combines acupuncture and herbal medicine.
When I first visit her practice (which is adorned with photos of babies sent in by parents who credit her treatments with their births), Dr Jiang explains that most of her clients are people seeking support for reproductive conditions and that different parts of the world boast their own take on acupuncture: “In China, for example, you would come to me with menstrual problems, and we would hospitalise you for one or two weeks,” she says. “You’d receive daily acupuncture treatments and herbal medicine, and we would discharge you when your body has truly had a chance to reset.” In the UK however, patients are likely to have appointments on a weekly basis. My first session was in early June.
During the 90-minute appointment, my acupuncturist gave a thorough verbal consultation, then took my pulse and checked my tongue – two practices integral to the diagnostic stage of acupuncture. Together, these are supposed to reflect what is happening internally and help guide the acupuncturist to offer a treatment tailored to your body’s current needs.
What happens during an acupuncture appointment?
“Acupuncture treats each patient as an individual. Every treatment will be tailored to that individual’s particular symptoms, not the condition,” Sarah Major, a practising acupuncturist and board member with the British Acupuncture Council, tells Stylist.
Take two people struggling with PMT, for example. One might complain of bloating, breast pain and irritability, while the other has anxiety, insomnia and back pain. If they had acupuncture, they’d be treated differently – despite their issues emanating from the same condition. “We would question swhether your symptoms happen at ovulation, a couple of days before your period starts, and whether they carry on into your cycle or after,” Major explains, “and every answer allows us to refine our approach to form that person’s treatment plan.”
From the pulse and tongue examination, my acupuncturist is able to tell that I had what she described as a “gigantic blockage”, where energy is unable to travel around the body. “By removing it, we will be able to see what we’re working with,” she assures me. In that first session, I have four pins inserted, tapped quickly and painlessly into the outer bridge of my nose and the tragus areas of my ears.
She warns me that after blockage removals, patients commonly experience an overwhelming surge of emotion for the remainder of the day, which can manifest as anything from uncontrollable giggles to unstoppable tears. I experience what can only be described as blinding mardiness. Not quite an active rage, but a deeply silent fury that hits me as I drive home and renders me unable to look my housemates in the eye for the rest of the evening.
Post-acupuncture benefits
Despite the negative emotion, the intensity of my body’s reaction compels me to continue treatment. I have since returned for six sessions, always timed to target specific points within my menstrual cycle. Each session follows a familiar routine: a verbal check-in, tongue and pulse examination, pins placed around my hands, feet, lower arms, legs and abdomen, a 10–15-minute nap to allow the impact to deepen while resting and, finally, having the pins removed.
Emotional release
I first notice significant improvements in July. I’d been out for the day with my mum and, sweltering in the heatwave, we both indulged in a mid-afternoon nap. Having felt calm all day, when I woke up around 7pm, I felt the familiar rise of emotion in my chest, like a shaken bottle of pop threatening to explode. Per my usual period routine, I cried myself to sleep that night and woke up feeling no less emotional, but with the validating sign of blood to indicate that I wasn’t going insane after all.
Shorter emotional symptoms
I had an appointment that afternoon, and my acupuncturist was thrilled that seven days of premenstrual depression was reduced to less than 24 hours of emotional irregularity. “Let’s work on those physical symptoms today!” she smiles. By the time I get home, the pain has almost completely subsided. The rest of my period passes with only mild discomfort.
Less discomfort
When I come on my period in August, I’m caught off guard without sanitary products on hand. I’m on time, but I haven’t had the excruciating emotional prelude that normally indicates its pending arrival. I don’t cry or have the urge to cry. I experience a slight discomfort on the first two days, but the pain is all but non-existent and I don’t leak (on day three, I even manage to do a morning and evening hike). Satisfied with my progress, my acupuncturist advises that I’ll likely only have to return a couple of times a year for a little boost.
Why isn’t acupuncture a more commonly prescribed treatment for period issues?
It strikes me that in over a decade of suffering with PME, acupuncture has never been suggested to me as a possible option by a medical professional. Not only has this denied me rapid physical results, but it’s also stripped my faith in Western medicine. Given the success of acupuncture in treating a wide range of gynaecological conditions, it raises questions about why it isn’t a more readily prescribed, easily accessible and affordable option in the UK.
“It’s important that we don’t dismiss the value that Western medicine has. Anyone who has ever taken antibiotics has been saved by Western medicine, for example,” Major stresses. “That’s why at the British Acupuncture Council, we are big advocates for an integrative healthcare system.” Integrative healthcare is a holistic approach that advocates for the incorporation of complementary medicines (like acupuncture) into comprehensive treatment plans alongside Western methods.
How to combine alternative and Western medicine for better health
So where should you go if you want to enjoy a mix of empirically based Western medicine and alternative treatments? Dr Nitu Bajekal, a senior NHS consultant obstetrician, gynaecologist and author of Living PCOS Free, is an advocate of lifestyle medicine –“a certified discipline that is completely evidence-based”.
She believes, when it comes to period issues, in first ruling out key conditions that are best treated using Western medicine (like endometriosis) and then applying what is known as the Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine:
- a plant-based diet
- stress management
- restorative sleep
- avoiding risky substances
- physical movement
- having a positive social network
And she also believes that complementary medicine, such as acupuncture, that’s been trialled and tested can have a huge impact on a patient’s health choices and outcomes. For acupuncture to be more readily prescribed and referred to by practitioners within a ‘lifestyle model’, she suggests “a move away from observational studies towards clinical trials and an exploration of how to overcome potential barriers. For acupuncture to be adopted in the mainstream the evidence must be held to the very high standards that only these trials can offer.”
That approaches to medicine could co-exist, collaborate and complement each other – in a way that best serves patients and that offers people optimism and agency in the form of options, time and care – shouldn’t be a utopian ideal. I know only too well the reality of living in pain every month. Many of us are having to accept severe physical and emotional symptoms when alternative treatments may have the potential to revolutionise our lives. Until Western approaches to medicine take practices like acupuncture more seriously, access to them will remain a postcode lottery of affordability and access – and that’s a tragedy.
Find your nearest, certified acupuncturist through the British Acupuncture Council.
Images: Getty
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