Women's Health Series: How Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture treat Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common endocrine and metabolic disorder among reproductive-age women.

PCOS used to be known as “polycystic ovary disease” but currently PCOS is considered not a disease but a sign of an underlying imbalance. It involves a complex series of hormonal interactions which give rise to the cascade of imbalance. Read more about Hormone Imbalance in Western Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine here.

Scientific Causes of PCOS


There is no clear explanation of how PCOS occurs in conventional Western medicine, but the strong association with insulin resistance and excess body fats such as women with a high waist-to-hip ratio or apple shaped figures are more likely to experience ovarian dysfunction such as PCOS.


High levels of circulating insulin which usually come from a refined food diet that raises blood sugar too quickly led to higher levels of androgens.


Chronically high levels of androgens prevent normal cyclic egg development in the ovary, blocking the growth and development of eggs before they reach full maturity. When a woman’s hormonal cycle is blocked by chronic androgen overproduction, neither she nor her ovaries will experience the natural cyclic changes associated with normal ovarian function. In other words, her hormonal levels remain static. Thus a woman’s ovaries contain many small cysts from underdeveloped eggs. On ultrasound, the ovaries look enlarged, with multiple small cysts just below the entire surface of the ovaries, hence the name of “polycystic ovaries”.


Energetic Causes of PCOS


In women with PCOS, the normal cyclic release of hypothalamic hormones from the brain is altered. In fact whenever a woman has a problem related to something as complex as the ovulation process, there most probably involves a problem with the regulatory mechanism of the menstrual cycle in the brain which largely involves the hypothalamus.


The hypothalamus is affected by emotional and psychological factors such as stress and repressed pain from the past which then result in the dysfunction of menstrual cycle.


Stresses that have been found to suppress ovarian and menstrual cycle functioning can go beyond day-to-day pressure but encompass deeper negative feelings about being a female and also feeling subordinate or inferior. In some women that have faced growing up being told that they are inferior to the opposite sex or on some level she develops a psyche that she wants no part of becoming or being a woman, such negative feelings and psychology may energetically cause the body to stop ovulating and become more “androgynous”.


Women undergoing such negativity and suppression of the normal ovulation process shows presentation of being more tense, anxious, more dependent, may hold suppressed rage at their mothers, constantly hold fear and guilt about their need for parental care and protection and a phobia of losing this protection. They are also less mentally productive in their work and daily lives.


Conventional Treatment of PCOS


Since conventional medicine does not know or acknowledge the cause of most cases of PCOS, treatment is superficially aimed at quelling the symptoms only.


Birth control pills, antiandrogenic drugs such as spironolactone, aromatase inhibitors that change the way hormones are metabolized, insulin-lowering drugs such as metformin to create cyclic menstrual periods are often prescribed which do not address lack of ovulation or the hormonal status of the brain.


Although the above conventional measures can prevent excess hormonal stimulation of the uterine lining and therefore decrease the risk of uterine cancer, which can result from years of buildup of the uterine lining if a woman does not have period over a long time, they still only partially mask the problem and never address the baseline cause.


Holistic Treatments in the treatment of PCOS


In order to recover from PCOS, one of the key ways to recover the cyclic ovulatory function is to observe carefully any negative childhood messages that may have been internalized about being a fertile woman. Commit to bringing these messages to consciousness so that they no longer control the body and the ovaries.

Some of the holistic ways that can help in achieving the transformation of old negative unserving messages to new positive healthy messages are below:

Read more on how TCM and Acupuncture treat Infertility, Premenstrual syndrome, Endometriosis.

Acupuncture


Because acupuncture works on physiological, mental, emotional level, it can reset the entire system, even the psychological level.

Repetition and attachment of old damaging negative childhood messages are a presentation when the heart is closed and this can be reversed and rectified with deeper healing modalities such as Heart Opening Acupuncture.

Herbs


Herb such as Pueraria mirifica can be taken cyclically to prevent excess hormonal stimulation of the uterine lining.


Rose is another herb that promotes self love, affirms and celebrates fertility and femininity.


Tension Release Therapy and Meditation


Tension Release Therapy and meditative practices are the deep healing methods for inner child and past trauma issues which are the key underlying cause for PCOS.

TCM(Traditional Chin Med), TCM Wellness, TCM and Science, Basics of TCM, TCM SexologyXiang Jun LimDr (TCM) Xiang Juntcm, acupuncture, traditional chinese medicine, western medicine, hormonal imbalance, infertility, science, gene, cells, molecules, women's health, pcos, polycystic ovarian syndrome, hormones