The Long and Short of It

         I was 32 and didn't have any health insurance so I did what I've always done; I went to Planned Parenthood.They were there when I was 23 and again when I was 25... Truth be told, I was there every month for quite a while in my young and crazy NYC days. Getting low-cost hormonal birth control in an effort to regulate my monthly cycle.
         I was just like virtually every woman I know in this respect. When I began menstruating, my period would come in the natural fits and starts of a mechanism that was just waking up. I, however, was 13 and utterly uniformed in any of these matters. When my family doctor suggested I go on the pill to help "even out"  my cycle and help with my acne at 16 years old, I didn't think twice about it. Of course that was a good idea! It certainly worked, too. My previously irregular and short cycle evened out to 28 days that came like clockwork after the last green sugar pill. The added bonus of my skin clearing up a little was just icing on the cake.
          The story is the same for millions of women. We start the pill, we stay on the pill. For a decade straight or longer, in many cases. Or we go off and on, depending on our access and how expensive it is. When I moved from NYC to Chicago my access to Planned Parenthood disappeared. So did my use of the pill and in two months I was back to short,  irregular and painful cycles. Flash forward to six years later... Happily back in NYC and going to school to learn acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, I was fascinated by the way Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) views hormonal birth control.
          Let's review how hormonal bc works on  a woman's body. By manipulating the levels of estrogen, testosterone and progesterone, the pill suppresses the maturation of eggs (ovum) which prevents ovulation from ever happening. Effectively tricking her body into thinking she is already pregnant she ovulates no more, sees increased breast size and mild to moderate weight gain. From a TCM perspective this is all kinds of bad.  Disrupting the natural processes of the body this way leads to stagnation in some channels, deficiencies in others and tremendous taxation on the yin organs. Looking at the biomedical process of the drug through the lens of TCM shows us it creates and perpetuates maladaptive functioning of the endocrine system. All of this to lengthen my historically short natural cycle of 21 days by a week to attain the magical 28.
          The cascade of steroid hormones that command our monthly cycles all correspond to various components of Zang Fu within 12 channel theory. Depending on the components of your menses we can target which organ systems need the most help. In my personal experience, regular acupuncture and Qi Gong normalized my cycle in three months time. Not only did acupuncture help regulate the length of my cycle, it mitigated all the other various complaints that went with my "monthly bill". No PMS, no cramps or bloating, etc etc etc. Now my only early warning sign is a slight twinge in my lower back and an urge to watch romantic comedies.