Acupuncture for PMT or PMS

What is PMS or PMT?

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) Or Premenstrual Tension (PMT) are both terms given to a set of symptoms commonly experienced by women in the days or weeks leading up to their periods. For some women, these symptoms can start 2-3 days before their period is due to start. For others it may regularly be a week before their period, and for some women, symptoms (especially breast pain and distension) can start soon after ovulation, meaning they are experiencing PMS or PMT for 2 weeks out of every 4, or half of the month, which can be quite debilitating.

What are the symptoms of PMS or PMT?

Typical symptoms of PMS or PMT include:

• Irritability

• Mood changes (suddenly feeling angry or emotional - often not knowing why)

• Pain or distension of the breasts, which may radiate to under the armpits

• Bloating

• Fatigue

• Lower back pain

• Headaches

• Constipation

• Craving sweet foods

How does Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) explain PMS or PMT?

In TCM, the liver organ system (which doesn’t correspond to the actual physical liver we are all so familiar with) is responsible for the smooth flow of vital energy (or Qi) around the body. When we experience stress, especially over a prolonged period, the liver organ system is unable to properly do it’s job and so energy stops flowing smoothly around the body (from one organ system to another), and an imbalance known as ‘Liver Qi Stagnation’ results.

In Western physiological terms, Liver Qi Stagnation results in contracted blood vessels, tight muscles and a hyperactive sympathetic nervous system (which many people refer to as “Fight or Flight”). This then results in the symptoms described above.

How does Western Medicine (TCM) explain PMS or PMT?

The causes of PMS or PMT are not properly understood within the framework of Western medicine, other than that is a hormonal imbalance (generally due to estrogen and progesterone), and due to it being so common (up to 90% of menstruating women and girls experience it to a greater or lesser degree), it is considered "normal”. There is no cure within western medicine..

GPs or Gyanaecologists therefore have little to offer women who present with difficult PMS or PMT except hormones (the pill or the coil) to try to suppress the menstrual cycle altogether. This, of course, does not resolve the issue, it merely masks it.

How can Acupuncture help with PMS or PMT?

Because Traditional Chinese Medicine (acupuncture and herbs) understands the cause of PMS or PMT, it is able, also, to treat and resolve it.

Acupuncture is the placing of very fine needles in particular points on the body (which in Chinese, translate as “holes”).

In very simplistic terms, the placement of these needles moves energy from one place to another and so “unblocks” stagnant energy (where there is too much) and moves the energy to other parts of the body, where the energy may be deficient. In doing so, the body begins to rebalance itself.

This “rebalancing” results in a calmer Central Nervous System, as well as a more balanced Endocrine (or hormonal) system and so, over time, we start to feel calmer, less stressed and our hormones become regulated. Once this is achieved, all symptoms associated with PMS or PMT disappear.

One hormone in particular, Prolactin, can be very high in women who are under a lot of stress, and these women will typically suffer from PMT. Prolactin levels will reduce over a course of weeks and months of acupuncture treatments.

How many Acupuncture treatments will I need before I notice an improvement in my PMS or PMT symptoms?

After each session, most people report feeling calmer, more relaxed and more able to cope with daily stresses.

Acupuncture is a cumulative medicine, so each treatment builds on the one(s) before. Although patients will start to feel better from the first treatment, 6 weekly sessions are usually required to ‘get on top’ of the issue, before cutting down the frequency of treatments.

Most women will notice a reduction in symptoms of PMT or PMS from the first month of weekly acupuncture treatments, and symptoms should be completely resolved within 2-3 months of regular treatment.