Acupuncture and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

A recient article published byUnited Press International, reports that acupuncture may help with infertility.

The article says that research at the University of Virginia reports that acupuncture helped women with PCOS – also called Polycystic Ovary Syndrome to conceive.  PCOS is a condition that causes hormonal imbalances that can interfere with ovulation and cause infertility.

The common symptoms of this condition includes irregular, infrequent, or no periods. When, and if, the periods do arrive they are often heavy and painful. The changes in the menstrual cycle are due to the growth of small cysts on the ovaries that cause the production of androgens, or male hormones, and little or no production of progesterone.

The excess male hormones can lead to excessive hair growth on the face and body. Some women might even start to experience male pattern baldness. Acne can also be a problem, especially on the face, back and chest. .  Another common symptom is weight gain, with around 40% of PCOS sufferers being overweight or obese. The increase in weight often leads to the symptoms of PCOS being worse, and the hormonal changes makes it harder than normal to shed the excess weight.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine PCOS usually comes under the category of Abdominal Masses and is described as being caused by a long term underlying Kidney Yang Deficiency.  Firstly, I must explain that in Traditional Chinese Medicine that by convention in the West we use words such as Kidney, Heart and Liver to describe the organ systems of the body, however, we are not talking about the same concepts as a Western Medical Doctor. Chinese Medicine recognises the structures of the organs, but also includes within their description an emotional, mental and spiritual aspect, and also attributes symptoms to the organ that are connected with the associated channel or meridian, so, for example a one sided headache is usually attributed to a Liver imbalance, because one of the channels associated with the Liver runs around the side of the head.

One of the functions of the Kidney according to Traditional Chinese Medicine is to supply the Fire of the body, this can be understood as being the root of the production of heat in the body, and the metabolic activity. When the Fire of the Kidney goes out there are symptoms of fatigue, lowered metabolism leading to weight gain and an accumulation of fluids in the lower part of the body. It is this accumulation of fluids that results in the growth of the cysts, in Chinese Medicine this called an accumulation of Damp or Phlegm. The Kidneys in Chinese Medicine are also said to govern reproduction and a deficiency of Kidney energy, or Qi, will lead to disruption to the normal menstrual cycle and infertility.

The other factors that are associated with the development of PCOS are emotional stress, consumption of greasy and fatty foods, sweets and alcohol.

So, the Treatment principle for PCOS is to use acupuncture points to tonify Kidney Yang and resolve the Damp or Phlegm. In addition to acupuncture it is also important to remove foods from the diet that are going to aggravate the conditions and to deal with any underlying emotional stress.