Menstrual Health
Managing menstrual health isn't just about periods. It blends your physical, mental, and social well-being.
Our Naturopathic doctors will craft personalized plans for those dealing with recurrent yeast or bladder infections, menorrhagia (heavy menstrual bleeding), endometriosis and osteoporosis. We’re here to tackle women's health challenges head-on and give you the treatment you deserve to optimize your health and wellness.
Endometriosis
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Endometriosis is classified as mild, moderate, or severe based on the amount of disease present and how much scarring has happened. It's like a ranking system for the amount of trouble it's causing and how much chaos it's creating inside.
Severe Endometriosis
When you're in for a rollercoaster of symptoms with severe endometriosis, our team at Oak Integrative can help! Acupuncture, herbal therapy, and diet can help reduce inflammation, improve post-surgical recovery, and enable your body's ability to absorb the endometrial tissue.
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Enter Chinese medicine, an alternative to drug therapy for mild to moderate endometriosis. Chinese medicine will help address the imbalance causing the endometriosis rather than only treating the symptoms—so it may take a bit longer, but it's all about restoring the yin and yang harmony in the body.
Give it approximately four months, and you should experience less pelvic pain, and your periods will begin to dance to a more regular rhythm, with smoother menstrual regularity and flow. -
When you're in for a rollercoaster of symptoms with severe endometriosis, our team at Oak Integrative can help!
Acupuncture, herbal therapy, and diet can help reduce inflammation, improve post-surgical recovery, and enable your body's ability to absorb the endometrial tissue.
ENDOMETRIOSIS
Endometriosis is when the endometrial tissue decides to set up camp outside of the uterus and the growth of endometrial tissue pops up in other areas of a woman’s body. Endometriosis can cause the following symptoms:
Pain during menses
Pain with intercourse
Infertility
POLYCYSTIC OVARIAN SYNDROME (PCOS):
This condition is actually less about cysts on the ovaries and more about high testosterone and blood sugar imbalances. Most people with PCOS go months without a menstrual cycle, exhibit weight gain, and facial hair growth.
But fear not! By balancing the testosterone and blood sugar seesaws, our team can support your body in bringing back the rhythm to your cycle, the natural way.
MENOPAUSE
Menopause can be a real whirlwind, right? The natural flucuation in hormones during menopause may be a hard transition for some. Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal medicine and natural remedies can help support the body during hormonal changes. Our dream team of Naturopathic and Chinese Medical Doctors aren't fans of generic solutions – they're all about crafting a tailor-made strategy for your specific needs.
Going through menopause doesn’t have to be an epic battle! If menopause feels like a showdown, we're here to help you manage those symptoms, so you can get back to living and loving life!
FIBROIDS
A fibroid, or uterine myoma, is a non-cancerous growth on the uterine wall. You can have one fibroid, or multiple, and they can be the size of a grain of rice or can grow to the size of a melon. Symptoms associated with fibroids are often related to their location in the body rather than their size, however growth is related to an increase in symptoms in some cases.
As for symptoms, here's the scoop:
heavy and/or painful menstruations
pelvic pain and anemia
frequent urination
painful intercourse
MENSTRUAL PAIN
Ah, those fierce period cramps are like a fire alarm set off by the body's inflammation brigade!
Intense menstrual pain (cramping) comes from high inflammation in the body and is generally not as much about hormonal health. With the right lab testing and a detailed history we can find the source of the inflammation. Intense cramping can often be alleviated with focused diet, lifestyle changes, and natural supplements.
PREMENSTRUAL SYNDROME (PMS):
Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) is often thought of as having a low or irritable mood associated with hormonal changes. However, women may experience a whole circus of sensations. Many other symptoms in addition to mood changes include low energy, cramps, bloating, headaches, acne, oh, and don't forget the food cravings and feeling cold like an icicle thrown into a snowstorm!
It’s important to assess hormone levels with specific lab testing and make sure the problem is not associated with a different health issue (i.e. thyroid problem). After a detailed medical history and lab testing is complete, our team’s got our natural arsenal ready: acupuncture's mood-lifting magic, herbal superheroes, and supplements to give you relief and put those symptoms in their place.
IRREGULAR MENSTRUAL CYCLES:
When the menstrual cycle decides to take a detour from its regular schedule there is generally an imbalance in hormones from a Naturopathic perspective (such as testosterone being too high or progesterone being too low). An imbalance in our Qi, Yin and Yang, from a Chinese Medical perspective.
And don't underestimate the stress hormones—they can also affect the production of menstrual hormones that regulate the cycle.
Cue the experts: having an in-depth Chinese medical diagnosis and the right lab testing done can help to identify the root cause of a condition. Once our team at Oak Integrative unravel the mystery and identify the problem, we can support you in making lifestyle tweaks and adding supplements, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine to your repertoire to help heal the body and balance hormones.