Acupuncture and hormones: your health in the balance
If you’re a regular reader of my blogs then you’ll know that whilst we provide a wide range of general acupuncture treatments to help with everything from hay fever to musculoskeletal pain and more, we have a special interest in acupuncture for women’s health.
We see a great many women who struggle with issues such as chronic or acute period pain, endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), fertility, and menopause, and acupuncture is highly effective in helping to resolve or manage some of the debilitating symptoms that they are experiencing.
In most cases relating to women’s health the common factor that we need to address in order to make progress is restoring hormonal balance, because it is hormone function that contributes most to gynaecological, reproductive, and obstetric health.
The issue of clinical care around hormonal health
One of the biggest issues for women in managing their hormone health lies in the lack of generalised clinical care that is available through the NHS. Google ‘treatments to manage hormone health’ and you’ll get tsunami of results about hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and menopause.
But menopause is not the only story when it comes to managing hormone health – and for many conditions that may be improved by better hormone function (e.g., period pains, or the effects of synthetic birth control treatment) HRT is rather like taking a sledgehammer to a nut.
Even in menopause many women don’t feel comfortable agreeing to synthetic HRT due to the perceived increased risk of heart issues and cancer that has been well-publicised over the last several years.
Of course, every woman understands better than anyone else the effect hormone function has on individual general wellbeing, but with some exceptions GPs are still largely reluctant to either refer or recommend patients for acupuncture therapy.
In fact, even now we still hear of instances where GPs prescribe antidepressants to female patients who are deemed to be ‘hysterical’ or ‘melodramatic’. Another quick online search will also show that antidepressants make most lists of available hormone treatments.
This is why we have seen increasing numbers of women choosing acupuncture as a more natural and gentle approach to achieving overall hormone health.
How does acupuncture help to improve hormone function?
Acupuncture is particularly beneficial in helping to achieve hormonal balance because it is a treatment that sees each patient as a whole person.
Given the pressures on the NHS, it’s easy to see why clinical healthcare, particularly at GP level, is predominantly focussed on symptom suppression rather than on the more time-consuming process of root cause diagnostics.
But that doesn’t make it right, and the consequence of the ‘sticking plaster’ approach to health management simply means that patients are far more likely to be back at their GP surgery in the future.
By contrast, and in treating the body as a whole, acupuncture can get to the root of issues at their source and, especially if used as part of an integrative approach to care that works in tandem with clinicians, aid the journey to better long-term wellbeing.
Superfine needles inserted in the skin at strategic points on the body stimulate our natural healing energy – known as qi – and restore balance to it. This in turn improves immunity and makes hormone production more effective and efficient.
In doing this, acupuncture also addresses unseen issues that you may not even be aware you have.
And hormone management isn’t just about women’s health, either. Hormone imbalances also play a big part in conditions such as chronic headaches and migraines, acne, and sleep issues, among many others.
The best approach for you
Our acupuncture treatments are all personalised to you as an individual. When you first come to see us, we’ll go through a health questionnaire, talk to you about any specific issues you want to address, and find out what you’re hoping to achieve from your programme of treatment.
Our treatments are delivered using state of the art equipment which uses advanced technology to give us the key information we need to prepare your personal care plan.
Every one of our patients has their own physiological and biological rhythm and one of the joys of acupuncture is that it is a traditional approach to healthcare that has been around for at least 2,000 years and is specifically designed to meet your own rhythm.
If you’d like to learn more about our acupuncture for hormonal health, please get in touch for an informal, friendly chat – I’d love to hear from you.