Taming the Sea of Blood

For People with Periods

By Julia MacGlashan, L.Ac

Your menstrual cycle is an elaborate balancing act of hormones in constant states of waxing and waning.  Imbalances at any stage can cause disruptions in your mood, sleep, energy, skin, pain etc. For many folks, it takes roughly 3-6 months of treatment to regulate hormones.  Ever wonder why your acupuncturist suggested weekly treatments during this time? The cycle has four stages, which works out to roughly one per week. See below to get an idea of what’s happening at each stage.

Stage 1: BLOOD
The first day of your period is Day 1 of your menstrual cycle.  Hormones are relatively low here. Your body’s Chong Mai (“Sea of Blood,” a splendid name) opens the floodgates.  The quality of this blood (color, thickness, clots, amount, and rate of flow) provides so much information on how your body is doing overall.  Your practitioner will definitely ask about this. Acupuncture and herbs at this stage help move and replenish blood. Treatment is especially good at this time if you get any cramps or headaches during your period or have a lot of clots.

Stage 2: YIN
Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) tells an ovarian follicle to develop, maturing an egg and increasing estrogen.  The estrogen then tells your body to rebuild the uterine lining. This is perhaps the most important stage if you’re trying to get pregnant- definitely don’t skip your treatment this week.  Acupuncture and herbs will support yin and jing (reproductive essence). Once estrogen (yin) builds to a certain level, Luteinizing Hormone (LH) triggers ovulation (yang). This is literally yin transforming into yang.

Stage 3: YANG
After ovulation, the empty follicle that released the egg produces progesterone (literally pro-gestation) to stabilize the uterine lining, making it the perfect thickness for implantation of a fertilized egg.  Yang continues to build with progesterone, so acupuncture and herbs at this stage will help support yang. The transition from yin to yang is a major hormone shift that should happen smoothly, but can be easily disrupted by things like emotional stress.  Mid-cycle symptoms are just as common as PMS.  

Stage 4: QI
Implantation occurs here, so this is important if you’re trying to get pregnant.  If there IS a pregnancy, your practitioner will incorporate qi and yang tonifying acupuncture and herbs to help maintain your progesterone levels.  If there’s no pregnancy, your hormone levels will drop back down and the cycle begins again with the Sea of Blood. Treatments will focus on moving qi to help prevent premenstrual symptoms.  If you regularly experience symptoms of PMS or PMDD, this is the most important stage for treatment.

So there you have it, the menstrual cycle in a nutshell.  If you have any questions about how hormonal imbalances could be affecting you, or how to incorporate that into your treatments, just ask your acupuncturist!