The Menstrual Cycle. A Vital Sign For Women’s Health.
/The period. For many women, it’s an inconvenient necessity. An annoyance. Something that always seems to come around when you least expect it. And for most, it’s only when something starts going wrong with our cycle or when we’re starting to think about conception that we start to put the menstrual cycle to the forefront of our mind.
Yet, the menstrual cycle is so much more than that. It’s recently been discussed as ‘the fifth vital sign’, and in 2015, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee on Adolescent Health Care published this Committee Opinion: Menstruation in Girls and Adolescents: Using the Menstrual Cycle as a Vital Sign. The four vital signs are body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing rate and refer to a group of the most important signs that indicate the status of the body’s vital life-sustaining functions. For the menstrual cycle to be declared as a possible fifth vital sign shows that western medicine has finally seen how important it is to women’s health, and not just when it comes to fertility.
In Chinese medicine, this understanding was thankfully never lost. For me, it wasn’t until I started studying Chinese medicine that I truly fell in love with my menstrual cycle – and my love for it grows more and more, as I delve deeper into treating, learning and understanding women’s cycles.
According to the principles of Chinese medicine, it doesn’t matter what my (female) patients come in for, I will ALWAYS ask about the menstrual cycle. We look for patterns of symptoms in Chinese medicine, and diagnose according to what we discover through questioning our patient, observing the tongue, and feeling the pulse. And the menstrual cycle tells us SO much about the state of a woman’s overall health.
Firstly, the bleed itself. Also sometimes referred to as ‘the monthly report card’. It tells me a lot about the general status of the health of the body, and more specifically about your health over the last month. And when it comes to the period, I leave no stone unturned. Some things I always want to know about are:
The quantity of the blood – how often do you need to change menstrual products?
The quality of the blood – is it thick? Is it watery? Are there clots? Is there mucus?
The colour of the blood – yes, I know it’s red. But there’s more. Is it a deep red or a bright red? Is it more purple? Or brown? Or is it more of a watery pink?
The length of the cycle, and the length of the bleed, and is it regular or irregular?
Discomfort – if there’s pain, where in the abdomen is it? Does it radiate? What’s the nature of the pain?
Associated symptoms – do other bodily functions change during the period? What are the bowels like? What’s sleep like? What’s the energy like? Are you getting other symptoms like headaches?
The answers to all these questions tells me about the state of the body. Whether it’s in an excess or deficient state, whether the Qi and Blood are circulating properly, and it tells us the state of not just the hormones, but the body as a whole.
Secondly, symptoms around the period. For some women, they don’t even notice the period coming, whereas for others there can be days or weeks of discomfort, moodiness, headaches or sleeplessness leading up to or just after the period, there may be pain at ovulation, or a drop in energy at a specific moment in the cycle. Again, we’re not just talking about the state of the hormones; all these signs and symptoms tell us about the state of the whole body.
Thirdly, if the main complaint isn’t related to the menstrual cycle, I still always ask my patients to notice when their symptoms tend to flare up. For most women, if we’re not paying attention to our cycle we don’t notice if symptoms are cyclical or not, but after a few cycles of noticing when symptoms tend to arise, a lot of women start seeing a pretty strong correlation to a particular phase of their cycle.
So what does this all mean, and why is it so important?
It’s important because it shows us that the menstrual cycle is a vital sign when diagnosing a state of health or disease in the body. And its not getting the attention it deserves. For far too long, we have been told that periods are dirty, inconvenient, to hide that we’re bleeding, and to get on with our lives. Essentially, we’re told to deny ourselves what our bodies most need.
The menstrual cycle is so necessary to the survival of humanity, and it should be honoured and celebrated. So, start small. Be curious. If you have a menstrual cycle, begin to notice how you feel at different times throughout the month. If you suffer from any health conditions, notice how they’re affected at different phases in your cycle. An easy way to start is to download one of the many free period tracking apps to help you start taking notes and tracking symptoms throughout your cycle.
And notice your bleed. Once you start noticing it, you’ll start to gain such an appreciation for it - you might even look forward to it! According to Chinese medicine theory, the menstrual bleed should be without clots, fairly pain free, without noticeable premenstrual symptoms, regular within a few days, and when it comes to heaviness, you shouldn’t need to change menstrual products such as pads or tampons more than every 1-2 hours, or any less than 2-3 times a day. Anything outside this may mean that the body is out of balance, and may need some attention from your Chinese medicine practitioner.
I don’t like to give out blanket advice when it comes to the menstrual cycle because every woman and every disease pattern is different, but if there’s one thing that is applicable to all menstruating women it’s to take some time to rest during your bleed. Even if it’s a small change like getting to bed a bit earlier on your first day of bleeding, or having a really long hot shower – taking care of yourself at this time is an extremely simple and extremely effective tool in improving not only your menstrual health, but your overall health.
As always, if you have any questions or are wondering whether Chinese medicine is appropriate for your condition, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via email, or book a free 15-minute phone consult online to discuss your health concerns.