Acupuncture for Women's Health & Pregnancy, Sydney

Are you dealing with pain every cycle? Is your cycle too long, not long enough, or just plain irregular?

Professionally Certified Acupuncture For Women's Health & Pregnancy in Bondi Junction, Sydney

Meet Your Acupuncturist

Hi, I'm Gavin from Acupuncture Grove, Bondi Junction, Sydney

Are you suffering from pregnancy nausea that has you constantly running to the bathroom? Are you in pain or having trouble sleeping but can’t take anything because you’re pregnant? Are you hot and not sleeping as you transition into menopause?

If you've been suffering from women's health and pregnancy issues and you're seeking a natural solution, then it might be time to try Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine.

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Gavin Martin-Rentz

Chinese Medicine Practitioner and Acupuncturist

Understanding Women's Health Issues

First, let’s have a look at the hormonal cycle. The menstrual cycle occurs through the complex orchestration of various hormones and physiological signalling within the body. When part of this orchestra is playing out of tune or time, it can quickly throw things out of balance and get trapped in a disharmonious cycle.

Here are some of the ways it may manifest itself:

Dysmenorrhea (period pain)

Amenorrhea (no period)

Standard medical treatments are limited, often with unwanted potential side-effects

Oligomenorrhea (irregular periods)

Menorrhagia (excessive bleeding)

Metrorrhagia (spotting or bleeding between periods)

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

Endometriosis

Premenstrual tension (PMT)

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)

Infertility or difficulties with fertility

Menopausal hot flashes

Just to name a few.

Whatever the imbalance, it can really impact your quality of life when you’re expecting negative symptoms every month or more. Sometimes period issues begin with the onset of menstruation. For others, these develop over time or after certain events like pregnancy or coming off contraception.

Treatments vary depending on the condition and the woman’s goals, but can involve:

Surgery

Contraceptive options to control unwanted period-related symptoms

Invitro fertilisation (IVF) or other assisted reproductive technologies (ART)

Hormonal replacement therapy (HRT)

While these can be important and useful treatments for some, there will still be women who find these options do not completely address the issue or would prefer to explore more natural alternatives.

Understanding Pregnancy Issues

Then there’s pregnancy. Which can be an exciting and joyful period for many women, but can also come with it’s own difficulties, such as:

Morning sickness - pregnancy nausea and vomiting

Pain

Fatigue

Swelling

Insomnia

Anxiety

High blood pressure

Miscarriage

Breech positioning

Difficulties with labour

Postpartum depression

Lactation difficulties

Obviously the body is undergoing a lot of changes and there will be certain challenges to overcome during pregnancy, with labour and then afterwards and so it is important to have the right support to help ease you through these phases as smoothly as possible.

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How do we use acupuncture for women’s health & pregnancy?

Each Person Is Unique

Obviously this is a huge category with a wide range of conditions, so the first part is always getting to know you and your particular situation. You need to be treated as a whole person, not just an “X” diagnosis or condition. In Chinese medicine, taking care of women’s health holds a high importance as they observed that families and communities were much better off when their women were happy and healthy.

Tailored Treatment for Each Individual

At Acupuncture Grove in Bondi Junction Sydney, we use acupuncture for women’s health and pregnancy tailored specifically to you. Hormonal and cycle related issues can take time to work with and so we like to have three months of treatment to see how your symptoms are responding. We’ll still be looking for positive signs within the first few treatments, but just the nature of being based around monthly cycles means that we need a few cycles to see if things are changing in the right way. Menopause will also require some time to work with but we may see positive signs earlier, considering symptoms like hot flashes are usually daily.

Once we know how you’re responding to the acupuncture, we’ll then work out a treatment plan for you. The ultimate goal would be to get you to a place where you don’t need acupuncture anymore, or it’s just something you do for maintenance.

For pregnancy related challenges, it really depends on where you are in your pregnancy and what you’re coming in for. If it’s for something that you’re experiencing daily like nausea, pain or insomnia, we’ll typically get a good idea of how you’re responding within the first 4-6 treatments. That doesn’t mean that it will be completely better in that time, sometimes these things will require management through phases of the pregnancy, but you should feel some early signs of relief or improvement from the acupuncture if it’s going to help.

If it’s for helping with labour induction or attempting to turn a breech positioning, we have certain protocols around those. The earlier you can get in touch, the better chance we have of helping out as acupuncture has an accumulative effect and so we need multiple treatments to give us the best chance of helping out.

Chinese Herbal Medicine

Chinese herbal medicine can also be a very useful adjunct when working with hormonal and cycle related women’s health concerns. This allows us to keep the treatment going daily which can be important for regulating hormonal cycles. It’s the same idea as acupuncture, we use it for a period to help address certain imbalances, but as you improve, we aim to get to a point where it’s no longer necessary. If it’s something that we feel will help you along, we’ll discuss it as part of the treatment plan.

If you would like to try acupuncture for women’s health or pregnancy with Acupuncture Grove in Sydney’s Bondi Junction, please don't hesitate to book an initial consultation, or get in contact with any questions below.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Acupuncture is widely used among pregnant women to help with a variety of concerns arising throughout pregnancy. There are certain points that should be avoided during pregnancy as these points are used at the end to help stimulate and support labour, so it is important that you seek out a registered and experienced practitioner.
Individual results will depend on a variety of factors, but it is certainly worth exploring considering the limitations of other options while pregnant. Some research suggests that acupuncture can be more effective than standard treatments for alleviating nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, offering a relatively safe, drug-free option. See here.
There is research to support that acupuncture can reduce pelvic pain and menstrual discomfort due to endometriosis, and improve quality of life compared to standard care or sham acupuncture. See here. The best way to find out if will help you, is to trial a series of treatments and see how you respond.
Irregular periods and premenstrual symptoms are mostly seen as an issue of smooth circulation within the body. In Chinese medicine, tension patterns can build and become stored within the body, causing issues with hormonal cycles and blood flow that produce these types of symptoms. The goal is to identify these patterns of imbalance and work with the body to restore healthy flow again.
In Chinese medicine menopausal symptoms arise from changes to the root system of the body (the “Kidney” system, which includes the reproductive organs). This can commonly lead to heat-type symptoms as the body struggles to anchor its heat, leading to a range of different symptoms including hot flushes, night sweats and dryness. The goal is to help the body move through the changes gracefully and restore connection to the Kidney system while supporting the fluids of the body. There are other imbalances that may come into play and so each case needs to be assessed individually.
Of course this will depend on what it is you’re coming in with. For hormonal concerns, a starting place of 3 months, or 12 weeks of active treatment, gives us a chance to make and see changes over the equivalent of 3 menstrual cycles. This is also relevant for cases without a regular menstrual cycle, such as amenorrhea, perimenopause and menopause. For pregnancy related concerns, it is also reasonable to think in terms of trimesters. If the goal is to support labour, it is recommended to begin treatment around week 36 or earlier, if possible for best effects.