PMS & Menstrual Symptoms

Pre-menstrual syndrome is a common condition women suffer from at all ages. As many other syndromes, PMS symptoms are commonly seen by many women a few days before the onset of their menstruation.

These symptoms vary significantly from a person to person. Many women would experience some PMS at some point in their lives.

PMS symptoms can be both physical and emotional. An example of physical symptoms include digestion problems, bloating, bowel movement issues, breast distension and sensitivity, lower back pain, and lower abdomen pain. The pains can be from general achy/distended like pain that is coming and going, to sharp stabbing like pain that stays in one place. Many other physical symptoms can occur to different women.

Emotional symptoms manifest as irritability, frustration, lack of patience, depression, and anxiety.

From a medical point of view, PMS referred to as a hormonal imbalance. Western medical science does not have a very clear understanding of PMS, but different research has shown an imbalance of the main female hormones, estrogen and progesterone produced by the ovaries, and involvement of the pituitary hormones.

In Chinese medicine we refer to PMS mostly as a form of Liver/GB Qi stagnation. The Qi (the energy that flows in the body, and regulate and animate the whole body) needs to be flowing free and “smooth” through the body at all time. When the Qi is not flowing through the body freely we can get many different symptoms, one of the common for woman is is PMS.

Treatment: Acupuncture is a great treatment for PMS, in many cases there is no need for herbal remedies or other treatments.

Dr. Eyal Lebel is both a Dr.of TCM, Acupuncture, as well as a Master herbalist of “western herbal remedies” in Vancouver, BC.