Painful periods (Dysmenorrhea)

Dysmenorrhea is the medical term for menstrual cramps, or painful menstruation. This condition can occur before, during, or after menstruation. The pain may occur in the lower abdomen, lower back, and may sometimes extend to the legs. In severe cases, the pain of dysmenorrhea is accompanied by nausea, vomiting, or even fainting.

Painful menstruation affects approximately 50% of menstruating women, and 10% are incapacitated for up to 3 days. Painful menstruation is the leading cause of lost time from school and work among women of childbearing age. This pain may precede menstruation by several days or may begin with the onset of menstruation. It usually subsides as menstruation tapers off.

According to Chinese Medicine, a healthy period should not be painful. Feeling pain with menstruation is always considered to be a symptom of an imbalance in the reproductive system. Pain during menstruation is always a sign that something isn’t functioning normally. In the practice of Chinese Medicine there are a fixed number of conditions that result in painful menstruation. The first step in treating dysmenorrhea is to try to isolate the cause, or differentiate from among the known factors that cause menstrual pain. Once the problem is understood, treatment can then be applied to try to restore normal function within the reproductive system. Chinese Medicine does not treat dysmenorrhea by trying to control or mask the pain. Instead, our approach begins by trying to understand the root cause of the problem, and then seeking to eliminate that cause. Once the source of the problem is transformed, the symptoms (in this case the pain), will naturally diminish or vanish altogether.

Dysmenorrhea and Infertility

Having painful periods does not cause a woman to be infertile. However, the same imbalances that frequently lead to dysmenorrhea are also known causes for infertility in Chinese Medicine. So there is a strong correlation between painful periods and infertility even though one does not cause the other. By treating their common cause, both infertility and painful periods can be effectively treated with acupuncture and Chinese Medicine.