The Syndrome

As successful women with busy lives, we often put ourselves, our health, our well being and our happiness far too low on our list of priorities. Faced with an endless list of loved ones, responsibilities, challenges, opportunities and passions, we sometimes square our shoulders and suffer through many things in life that we would do well to heal instead. When it comes to a condition like PMS, we often tell ourselves that we just have to “deal” with it – that it is just a part of life. In recent literature it is noted that as many as 80% of women experience some form of PMS at one time or another, and 30-40% of these women have PMS severe enough to interfere with their day-to-day lives.
 
Premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, is actually a group of symptoms that start one, or even two weeks before your period. Most women have at least some symptoms of PMS, and symptoms typically go away after menstruation begins. While the symptoms related to PMS are not life threatening (abdominal bloating and cramps, breast tenderness & swelling, mood changes irritability, frustration, depression, anxiety, acne, back pain, fatigue, food cravings, headaches, insomnia, joint pain, water retention, and dizziness), they can greatly diminish our quality of life and how effective we are in our lives.  And that is significant – for ourselves and for those we love, work for and associate with.

As a woman you do not have to experience this pain and discomfort every month – or even occasionally! When the symptoms of PMS are reduced or eliminated, we feel more energetic physically, mentally, emotionally and creatively.

The Opportunity

PMS is a symptom of menstrual cycle energy out of balance.

Chinese medicine is quite distinct from western medicine in its linkage of the physical, emotional and spiritual bodies.  In our monthly cycles we see all of the major Yin organ systems in coordination with one another.  And each system carries its spirit-emotion energy into the cycle.

The Heart rules our highest spiritual expression. The Spleen guides our nurturing of others and our contemplative and introspective nature.  The Lungs govern bonds and their dissolution. The Kidney energies are our deepest, most profound energies—our potential, our truth, fundamentally who we are. The Liver oversees our use of energy within our own bodies and personalities and our ability to move out into the world.

The menstrual cycle is a dance of these spiritual energies, as well as the physicality of the cycle we are more familiar with.  Sadly, many of us have been trained to resent or ignore our periods, or worse, to see them as shameful.  Consequently, we are missing out on one of our greatest teachers!

PMS is a twist on the natural fullness of the womb that then escalates with pregnancy or releases into menstruation.  Our bodies miraculously gather and layer nutrition in the uterus in anticipation of a child.  At this time we are at our peak fullness.  

With all of this collecting, our energy at this time is high! It is a powerful time.  We are “saturated” with Life!   It is the "summer" of the monthly cycle.  When we are in synch with our bodies, we can tap into that fullness to make PMS week a super-productive and positively expressive time. We can get stuff done! AND command it.  Alternatively, when we are out of balance, this fullness can get translated into a kind of stuckness.  Our enormous energy doubles back on us—we feel irritated, pressured, frustrated.  Our bodies feel burdensome.  Some of us feel weighed down while others of us feel so underfunded we just can’t do anything…we want to sleep, eat, lie down.

The menses themselves naturally feature a kind of emotional release. Once the bleeding starts, pressure lessens. Physical pain with PMS or flow time is a signal that things were not balanced going into it. 

Yet having a kind of sadness with the bleeding is normal.  This is Lung energy at work. While enzymatically the uterine lining dissolves, so our expectation of pregnancy dissolves.  Even if we are actively protecting against pregnancy, we were biologically gearing up for it, and now we say goodbye to that potential.  Goodbye’s are bittersweet.  We feel melancholy—nature’s invitation to intimacy with self. The early bleeding days 1-3 are for reflection, quiet, rest. It is a time of high intuition.

Moods tend to change around day 3 of the period—a shift out of sadness into hope.  It is about this time in the cycle that a new follicle is gaining attention for our next shot at pregnancy.  Our mood rises and Life gets back to business as usual.

So it is NORMAL to have emotional flux before and during your period!!!!

For those trying to conceive the PMS and period weeks can be very difficult indeed.  Hopes up, hopes dashed.  Feelings of failure can arise and wound the spirit.

Whatever you are experiencing, PMS week and your period invite you to LISTEN IN!  If you accept this time in your cycle as an opportunity, you may discover things about yourself—your deepest yearnings, your truest  feelings, surprises in your relationship with your past/present/future.  

Whether you want children, don’t want children, have them, have lost them (physically or spiritually)…your reproductive years and the menstrual dance are an opportunity Mother Nature provides you to experience yourself as Mother.

Every woman is called to motherhood – some with literal children, some with figurative children (career, service, creativity, and her other blessings out into the world).  As we mature, and move through our reproductive years, we learn that our cycles are opportunities to know and mother ourselves—that is, to gestate and give birth to who we are meant to be.  As the Oriens motto puts it, “more of who you are.”  That’s our Kidney energy (life mission) nurtured by our Spleen energy (self-understanding) and expressing as Heart energy (spiritual unfolding) – all orchestrated by the Liver energy (creative urge).

Relieving PMS



At Oriens, every woman is treated uniquely. We first listen, then tailor design her plan.  But we can definitively say we experience great success using a combined approach.

Some women will see a reduction in their symptoms right away while others may take a longer period of time. Anticipate three menstrual cycles of treatment for the root causes of your PMS to be well in hand.  Stress levels, lifestyle, and general health are variables in your personal response time.

Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine

                                                                                                          
Acupuncture works to physically correct disturbances in how your cycle is flowing. Acupuncture helps rebalance the energy relationships within your body, so that the dance of your menstrual cycle is one of harmonious celebration of your fertile, reproductive years…no pain, no symptoms. 

Check out this article in the British Journal of Obstetrics summarizing over 27 research studies of more than 3000 women demonstrating acupuncture’s effectiveness in reducing menstrual pain and other symptoms.

Chinese Herbal Medicine can quickly change a menstrual pattern from nightmare to healthy cycle.  Herbs invite your body to recover and replenish what has been lost, or to reconsider how to use and direct the resources it already has.  Unlike pharmaceuticals, herbs don’t contain hormones or replace hormones.  Instead, herbs prompt the self-healing switch to turn on, which helps the cueing system you already possess to resume more useful functioning.  Always work with a national board certified Chinese herbalist.  Herbs are natural, but powerful and need to be used safely.  Don’t fall for gimmicks and one-size solutions on the internet or what you heard worked for a friend.  You’re more complicated than that, and herbs are complicated too.

Elizabeth Carpenter, MS, L.Ac. has been helping women balance their cycles, restore their fertility and resolve their health issues since 1998.  Sharon Wyse, MS, L.Ac. leads the Oriens Chinese medicine practitioner team.  Her passion for women’s health and research helps keep Oriens abreast of the latest developments in science and reproductive medicine.


Nutrition                    
                   
Research on nutrition’s role in inflammation reduction, hormone modulation, digestive function, immune regulation helps us to understand how food and supplements can address all the symptoms and drivers of PMS. Kathryn Flynn, Oriens Nutrition Counselor and women’s health expert, provides individual menus, recipes, meal plans, snacks, dining-out and take-out tips to match your personal lifestyle.  She will also advise you on supplements and much more. Kathryn stays with you as a mentor as you follow her guidelines.


Maya Abdominal Massage

MAM is an external, non-invasive manipulation that repositions internal organs that have shifted and restricted the flow of blood, lymph and qi. The technique relieves congestion and blockages. Toxins are gently flushed and circulation is greatly enhanced, allowing nutrients to reach their targets to tone tissue and balance hormones. Simone Burgos is an extraordinary practitioner of MAM, standing in direct lineage to the originators of the Arvigo technique, which has brought MAM to the world. She brings healing touch and also teaches you how to honor and care for your womb.


 What is your cycle and PMS pattern saying to you, about you?

In the Oriens approach, Chinese medicine serves as the diagnostic cornerstone for understanding a woman’s PMS.  One reason our programs are so effective is that we get to the root of the problem.  Yes, we manage symptoms too.
    
You'll find the most common PMS symptom cluster categories below. Most women will recognize themselves in more than one.



We hope you will feel inspired to listen to your cycle and reconsider it! 

• Liver Qi Stagnation pattern: Emotional stress is one of the main contributors to the Liver Qi Stagnation pattern of PMS. Other clinical manifestations include headache, breast tenderness, depression, irritability, and a feeling of distention or pain under the rib cage, constipation before flow starts.

• Heart Blood deficiency pattern: Chronic illness or excessive menstrual blood loss contributes to Heart Blood Deficiency pattern of PMS. Other clinical symptoms include heart palpitations, dizziness, insomnia, emotional upset, speaking incoherently, sadness, fatigue/sluggishness, poor memory and dull-pale complexion.

• Spleen qi/ yang deficiency pattern: Poor diet and emotional stresses are the main causes for Spleen qi and yang deficiency pattern of PMS. Clinical manifestations include feeling weak and lethargic, water retention, bruising easily, bearing down sensation of the abdomen or uterus, pale face, shallow breathing, loose stools.

• Kidney qi/ yang deficiency pattern: A pattern of menstrual disorders with Kidney Yang Deficiency will often include lower back soreness before and during menstruation, sometimes with weak or sore knees, fatigue, watery menstrual blood, diarrhea just before menstruation, cramps after menstruation begins, ringing in the ears, or a feeling of cold in the body.

We feel privileged you have trusted us with your healing needs, and to be your portal to scientifically based information, other responsible resources, and to be your counselors and your mentors.

 
If you have questions, or would like to schedule with Elizabeth, Sharon, Kathryn or Simone please simply call 212.213.5785 or email. We also invite you to work with them through their Oriens Online Services.