Menopause
According to Chinese Medicine women age in cycles of 7. Classic Chinese Medicine texts suggest that around the 7th cycle of the 7year cycles or 49 years old a women’s menstrual cycle begins to cease flow. Modern medicine states the same thing, that on average women tend to enter menopause between ages 49 and 55.
While the two modalities acknowledge this time of transition in a women’s life how they view it is quite different. Modern medicine see’s menopause as a disease, as in a deficiency of hormones, Chinese medicine sees it as a state of being, a time of life, no different from a time of adolescents or infancy. From this perspective there is nothing inherently wrong with menopause. And what is true is that the typically symptoms associated with menopause don’t affect everyone. Some women fly through it without a hitch. I’ve had several women tell me it’s the best thing to every happen to them.
When we see the symptoms associated with menopause like insomnia, night sweats, hot flashes, brain fog, muscle aches, joint pain, irritability, dryness of the skin and vaginal tissues these are symptoms that something is not imbalance. Certainly our skin and hair ages with time but an accelerated aging is not normal and is the body telling us it is having difficulty with something. What it is having difficulty with is our quest. One that isn’t always simple but with observation and action can be remedied.
I have begun to think of menopause as the last grand road trip in this lifetime. A cross country journey with hopefully many miles ahead of me. Before beginning this adventure don’t you think it is only right to check the tires, make sure there is enough oil and that it is clean and that you have decent brakes?
So if you are one of these women, as I am, who upon this last leg in the journey of life is noticing you are not quite getting the milage you think you should, consider entering a dialogue with your body. What does it need? Where is it hurting? Is it too hot or too cold? Are the digestive powers too weak or glutted upped? Consider Chinese Medicine as an avenue to help you translate this language. Remember menopause is not a disease. Reach out to a San Antonio acupuncturist and herbalist to help guide you and translate this inner dialogue your body is having with you. Know thyself! Be thankful to this body, it’s the only one you have!
I have one last image for you as you think about your body and time of life. In Chinese Medicine menopause is a time in which the forces which fuel the future through our menstrual flow and ability to give life begin to turn inward. No longer fueling the surface, we see our hair be less lustrous, our skin not as youthful. These forces don’t leave us, they dive deeper and move from the uterus to the heart where it nourishes the deeper spirit of self. This is a time for you, for connecting with your sense of self and purpose, now that babies are raised and the demands to support the future are not as great. In the image of the heart and the uterus we see two organs that fill and release blood, two organs of the spirit, one of the babies and the future and the other the spirit of self. I offer this beautiful image to hold for this important and meaningful time of life!
