Pleasurable Menopause:

The Quest and the Reward

We usually think of late teens or 20’s as the time when people experience a challenging, life transforming “quest”. Actually, life transformation is happening all the time to most of us. You don’t have to be young to experience transformation. In fact, as we gain experience and wisdom, we are more able to accomplish transformation in our lives.

Menopause is actually just such a time when a woman has earned enough wisdom to take the challenge of transforming her life toward centering her awareness and energy more in herself than in solely giving to others and the outside world. This activity is the opposite of selfishness.

If a woman transforms her relationship to herself, it has a positive effect on the whole family!

Let’s give an example:

Nicole feels exhausted and knows she is often irritable with her family. She makes a commitment to improve her health by attending a Pilates/Spa club 3 times a week.

After 2 weeks, Nicole discovers how good it feels to relax with massage. After 4 weeks, her Pilates instructor and classmates refer her to an acupuncturist. The acupuncturist gives Nicole treatments that are deeply relaxing and prescribes herbs that correct many of the peri-menopausal complaints that have started to bother her in the last year. Nicole starts sleeping better and has more energy because her body is starting to come into balance.

Within the next 6 months, she feels better, looks better, and her husband takes her for a special weekend get-away to celebrate how much he appreciates the positive changes in his home life!

Self transformation is the most powerful action any of us can take. If we transform ourselves, everyone around us must change how they relate to us, because we have changed.

The details of getting one’s body to come back to balance are different for each person. Most women need some “fine tuning” of that balance by the time they reach 35 years old. By peri-menopause, almost all women are experiencing complaints caused by imbalances. The complaints are not “just in your head”. Chinese medicine recognizes these complaints as imbalances that can lead to more serious disease.

The following formulas are designed to correct some of the symptoms peri-menopausal women often experience.

PERI-MENOPAUSE SYMPTOMS

Kidney yin deficiency
aversion to hot temperatures
hotflashes
fatigue
thinning or dry head hair
alopecia
flushed cheeks
night sweats
insomnia
low back sore or achy
dry skin
excess menstrual bleeding
dizziness or visual dizziness
bladder irritation
pain in back of knees
pain of sexual organ
blood in urine
dribbling urine
heat on soles of feet, hands & face
limb numbness
ringing in ears
vertigo

Kidney yang deficiency
hotflashes
puffy under-eye tissue
aversion to cold temperatures
facial or limb edema
urinary frequency
resting perspiration

Spleen yin deficiency
puffy eyelids
edema-both feet
abdominal distention
red nose or nose tip
chapped skin on fingertips

Spleen yang deficiency
loose stools
diarrhea
abdominal distention
clear vaginal discharge
poor appetite
aversion to cold temperatures

Liver yin deficiency
dry eyes
vaginal dryness
restless heat anywhere
weak legs
belching

Rising Liver yang
vertigo
headache
high blood pressure
restless
restless leg syndrome
migraine
depressed
irritable
crying
breast tenderness
sighing
belching
vomit
headache
rib pain

Lung yin deficiency
dry cough
blood in sputum
fevers
dry skin

Heart yin deficiency
panic attacks
insomnia
palpitations
talking too much
manic behavior
laughing too much
poor memory
inability to concentrate

Blood Stasis
purple spots on tongue
clots in menses
cold uterine area
spotting associated with period
purple or dark menses blood

Stomach yin deficiency
heartburn
burned smell of breath
frequent hunger-after eating enough
tongue pain and stiffness
mouth, throat dryness
poor protein digestion

Large intestine
difficult to move stool
anal irritation
bowel movement not complete
undigested food in stool
chronic chapped lips
less than one bowel movement per day

Small intestine
colitis
leaky gut syndrome

Damp
dribbling urination
post-nasal drip