Acupuncture and Menstrual Cycle

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

Not uncommon at all, particularly in people where there are issues. Generally within 3 cycles after starting treatment we have the vast majority of issues worked out but some shifting in the period date or other abnormalities (one really bad period, a missed period in people who never miss, etc.) is very common initially.

You of course don&#39t want to assume that this is a matter of course or just something that needs to happen but guided by your diagnostic tools this rarely indicates an issue. There will be other changes along with the date changing that will guide you whether or not this is a positive change - changes in clotting, changes in blood color, in days of menstruation, in levels, dates of ovulation, appearance and/or increase of cervical mucus, etc. All of that plus traditional diagnostic tools will help you to know with some certainty where your patient is heading.

Comment by Archived User

There are 3 patterns for menstraction delay, 1, cold; 2, blood deficiency; 3, Qi Stagnation; basic points prescription is: Ren6, Kd13, Sp6; with cold pattern + St25, 29; with deficinecy cold pattern + Du4, Kd3; with Blood deficiency pattern + Ub14, 20, ST36; with Qi stagnation pattern+ Lv5.

Comment by Archived User

Hello Dr Chad,

Thank you for your inputs. I will take your suggestions and look forward for the positive changes.

Comment by Archived User

Hello Mr Feng Mei,

I am already treating with Ren 6, Kd 13 and Sp6. I think she is a combination of Blood deficiency and Qi stagnation pattern condition.

Thank you so much for your inputs.

Comment by Archived User

in addition to the response above regarding a common delay in the menstural cycle after starting acupunture, my question is whether the patient should continue to receive treatment or stop treatment until cycle returns before continuing?

In this particular case, the client has never missed a period until now but experienced a miscarriage 6 months prior and had a D&C. She is now concerned about tissue damage. Treatment started day 2 of her cycle with visits 2x week with herb medicine. This is her first treatment cycle and now cycle is delayed by 10 days and a negative blood test for pregnancy. In addition she is feeling fullness and twinges which was never this obvious.

Thank you

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

First unless your post is 100% relevant to the original posters question, please start a new conversation instead of commenting on old posts that are years old. This will not only help your post to get answered, but it will help the readability of the forums overall and stop unnecessary notficiation emails from getting mailed to people about content that is dated.

Now that said, when you say "whether the patient should continue to receive treatment or stop treatment until cycle returns before continuing" - without treatment how else do you think their hormonal balances and mentrual issues will be improved? I think the crux of the matter is that practitioners often only look to the positive in treatments. In other words, if acupuncture can change hormones, why would the outcome always have to positive? And whose to say the body doesn&#39t need to have one delayed cycle or skip another cycle to help it balance itself?

Acupuncture is certainly more auto-regulating than herbal medicine in my opinion, but proper diagnosis and treatment point selection is still very crucial. If people have hormone related problems, however, and you are getting a change in the hormones - I think this is a good sign overall. While we would all like every single change to be positive, that&#39s simply not the way the body works. Particularly with her history of the miscarriage and the DNC, the liklihood of normal cycles this close to the miscarriage is pretty low. So you work to help her body heal from those techniques and work with the hormonal changes that you are trying to help the body regulate and all will be well. The logic of stopping treatment when someone is clearly having a problem doesn&#39t seem appropriate to me.