Homeopathy For Women Today

As we saw in the earlier post, Perimenopause is the period in a woman’s life when hormonal changes start to happen before menopause (or the complete cessation of periods). Both Perimenopause and menopause can be extremely stressful if you are not prepared or do not know what is happening.

Changes that happen during Perimenopause & Menopause not only affect your physical health, but your emotional and mental health as well.  Since Homeopathy treats a person as a whole, and not her disease symptoms alone, it is well-positioned to treat the woman holistically during this period. I will write more about using Homeopathy for this in later posts. 

Common symptoms of Perimenopause & Menopause include:

• Hot flashes
• Night sweats
• Insomnia
• Palpitations of the heart
• Migraine headaches  (see my earlier posts on Migraines too)
• Weight gain
• Aching and sore joints & muscles
• Tingling in hands and feet
• Dizziness or loss of balance
• Depression and mood swings
• Fuzziness, inability to focus or concentrate, disorientation
• Short-term memory loss
• Fatigue
• Increased sensitivity (for example, allergies)
• Cold hands and feet
• Changes in libido
• Mastitis (Breast swelling) and tenderness
• Heavy, irregular or erratic periods
• Fibroids
• Recurring urinary symptoms such as urinary tract infection
  Bone loss, skin and nail problems
• Tinnitus, ringing in ears

Note:  Not all symptoms will be seen in every woman. Some of these symptoms may also be signs of other disease conditions, such as diabetes, hypothyroidism, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and depression with other causes. If you suspect you may be suffering from  any of these conditions, please see your healthcare professional or doctor immediately.

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Extracted from an article entitled “Perimenopause : the Beginning of Hormonal Change”, by Dr. Marcelle Pick, Obstetrician & Gynecologist [www.womentowomen.com].

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In integrative medical circles, there has long been recognition that a transitional period of time exists before menopause, which is different for each woman, when fluctuating hormones may cause her serious distress.

Thankfully, conventional medicine has caught up and we now have an official name for this passage in medical textbooks: perimenopause — defined as a transition period that precedes menopause, as in “pre-menopause,” which is symptomatic of hormonal imbalances and fluctuations in a woman’s body.

Symptoms of perimenopause can begin as early as 10–15 years before menses completely stop. Women in their late 30’s, 40’s and early 50’s may transition in and out of a perimenopausal state many times before they finally enter menopause. I

f you are currently experiencing symptoms such as irregular periods, heavy bleeding, hot flashes, sleep disruption, headaches, dry eyes, vaginal changes, hair loss, and weight gain, or extreme emotional distress, you may be relieved to know that these are all common signs of perimenopause.

Along with the more obvious changes listed above, many of my perimenopausal patients find their short-term memory impairment or a lack of focus to be very irksome. These cognitive effects of hormonal imbalance are frequently overlooked in mainstream discussions about perimenopause. Yet fuzzy thinking and an inability to multitask can definitely be traced to your physical state, as can increased anxiety, fatigue, depression and drastic mood swings.

These symptoms are actually signals being thrown up by your body to make you stop in your tracks and take notice. Women often remark on the brain fog that comes over them after childbirth, affording them only the attention span to focus on their new baby. A similar phenomenon occurs with the hormonal fluctuations leading up to menopause — only this time the miasma of your hormones is telling you to stop and pay attention to yourself!

It may be reassuring to remember that a woman’s body is always in flux, always changing, and never more so than in the years that characterize puberty and perimenopause. In the same way you can be “pubescent” you can also be “perimenopausal.” But these are just words, not a rigid definition of who you are, what your body is capable of, or who you are going to be.

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As women, we face unique health challenges. Our bodies are regulated by monthly cycles as rhythmic as the phases of the moon.

Normally, these cycles flow naturally and effortlessly. Yet the delicate interplay of hormones, stress, environmental pollutants and improper diet can cause imbalances. That’s when healing herbs and natural homeopathic remedies may help restore equilibrium.

“Many women’s health problems are very easily treated with homeopathic medicine,” observes Jacquelyn Wilson, MD, former president of the American Institute of Homeopathy and a homeopathic family practitioner in Escondido, Calif.

PMS, irregular periods, cramps, vaginitis and bladder infections all respond to homeopathy, Wilson notes. And unlike conventional therapies, homeopathy seeks to balance the system by stimulating the body’s innate ability to heal itself.

Wilson has used homeopathy for the past 20 years in her medical practice. She became interested in homeopathy because she felt it offered more relief for women’s health problems. “In allopathic (conventional) medicine, narcotics such as pain pills are the primary treatment for menstrual cramps, while birth control pills are used to regulate periods. In homeopathy, thousands of medicines are available, so there are a lot more treatment choices.”

Jennifer Jacobs, MD, agrees. After practicing conventional medicine, Jacobs investigated homeopathy 20 years ago and now uses it almost exclusively in her practice in Seattle, Wash. “I turned to homeopathy because it’s a natural system of medicine that stimulates the body’s own healing mechanism, and there are no side-effects,” she explains.

Homeopathy is a system of medicine developed in the late 1700s by German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Based on the principle of “like cures like,” homeopathic remedies cause disease symptoms in overdose yet cure the same symptoms when prescribed in minute, homeopathic microdoses.

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