There are many ways by which menstrual cramps can be treated in women. This can be through the use of OTC pain medications, birth control pills, natural methods and alternative therapies.
Talking about alternative therapies, acupuncture is one of the most effective methods for relieving pain in general, let alone menstrual pain. The procedure is not very popular as there is a real dearth of acupuncturists who can effectively relieve the pain.
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The theory of acupuncture believes that it is the release of stress hormones and other hormones in excess that block the smooth flow of energy in a woman’s body during menstruation, causing severe menstrual cramps.
How To Treat Menstrual Pain With Acupuncture
Symptom Check
Unlike acupressure, acupuncture is done by an acupuncturist and hence you do not need to do anything much other than describe your symptom adequately to the acupuncturist.
Getting to know the procedure will help you understand the process done by the acupuncturist. When you have severe abdominal cramping along with mood swings, it means that you have stagnant blood and energy flow.
Dull pain that lasts through your entire menstruation and even before and after that indicates a blood deficiency in the LV/KD meridians.
Treatment Plan
Your acupuncturist will treat the chi and blood stagnancy along with other symptoms as well like breast tenderness, bloating, menstrual cramps, distention of the abdomen, burping, mood swings etc.
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The practitioner will check your pulse and look for any kind of white coating and purplish colour tongue. Acupuncture in such cases will be applied on LV 2 and also 3, CV 6 and CV3, GB 34, and SP 6 and also 8 meridians.
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Alternate Treatment Plan
For symptoms that are different from the ones mentioned above, the treatment plan too varies.
If the menstrual cramp is not dull but feel more like a sharp and stabbing kind of pain and is also accompanied by bloating without common symptoms like breast tenderness, the practitioner will again check for clotting of menstrual blood and pain in the abdomen that becomes worse when pressure is applied.
Such symptoms show that there is deficiency of energy flow and blood. The treatment method in such cases will be acupuncture which is performed on ST 29, SP6, CV6, LV3 and SP 10 meridian points.
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Acupuncture For Women After Childbirth
For women who have given birth more than one time, the menstrual pain and symptoms would be slightly different than other women. This is because of deficiencies in the meridian points LV and KD.
These deficiencies can often lead to increased menstrual cramps or dull and intermittent cramps after the periods have ended. The pain will be decreased with pressure and women will also have slight back ache, chronic fatigue, dizziness with very light menstrual blood which is red in colour.
To treat the efficiencies in KD and LV meridian points, the acupuncturist will insert needles on meridian points UB 18 and UB 23, KD 3, ST 36, CV 4, LV 3 and also LV 8 meridian points.
