Herbal medicine have been used to treat health problems way back our history dates. Women's health issues is not an exception. Chaste tree, was recommended around 455 B.C. by Hippocrates for the undesirable symptoms that can occur during a woman's menstrual cycle, and the herb is still used for this today.
In the age of Pill and HRT many thinks it is the only choice for period problems and changes brought by menopause. There are other options and herbal medicine is one of them with broad spectrum of herbs to manage various ailments.
Even in the puberty when menarche occurs some girls start to experience menstrual difficulties. Which can be very frustrating. Most of menstrual disorders are caused by hormonal imbalance and nutritional deficiencies. That includes an underlying causes for them too.
Dysmenorrhea or painful menstruation in other words is one of them. It could be related to poor circulation, stress, lack of exercise, bad posture, too much caffeine, and smoking, excessive alcohol. Herbal treatment plan is individual to everybody. Atispasmodic herbs for managing pain as Black haw, Cramp bark, and Black cohosh could be prescribed along hormone regulating herbs like Chaste tree, Evening Primrose, Chinese angelica and also herbs to support livers ability to breakdown hormones something like Dandelion. Herbalist could prescribe herbal or essential oil rub to help calm the pain.
Menorrhagia or heavy periods can be caused by fibroids, polyps, perimenopause, thyroid problems. Endometriosis. Herbs to treat underlying cause of heavy period would be included in the herbal formula as would be astringent herbs for heavy bleeding like Lady`s mantle, Yarrow or Agrimony.
Amenorrhea or absent menstrual period and Oligomenorrhea or irregular menstrual period can be caused by nutritional deficiencies, overwork, intense exercise, thyroid problems, sudden weight loss, stress. Emmenagogues or in other words herbs to normalize and encourage menstrual flow would be in herbal mix. Examples of emmenagogue herbs Marigold, Motherwort, Mugwort. In the next blog post I will look into PMS causes and herbs for it.
