Great Sex, Naturally (22 page)

PMS is largely preventable or treatable because
it
isn’t the problem; it’s a constellation of symptoms that reflects underlying imbalances in your body. These can be due to your stress levels, neurotransmitters, and other factors, but the most frequent causes are hormone imbalances. Numerous studies show that balancing your hormones can be essential to resolving symptoms of PMS. Imbalances in estrogen and progesterone are among the common culprits; as this chapter has pointed out, estrogen dominance—too much estrogen relative to progesterone—can increase PMS symptoms. Cortisol and thyroid-hormone imbalances can also cause the symptoms, as well as hormone imbalances in the years leading up to menopause, when women typically experience drops in hormone levels.

You can use the hormone-evaluation and hormone-testing techniques outlined earlier (and in
Appendix E
) to determine if hormone imbalances are implicated in your PMS symptoms. If you have estrogen dominance, you can treat PMS by boosting your progesterone level with methods we’ll explore in the following pages. With estrogen dominance, your PMS symptoms are likely to include breast swelling and tenderness, bloating, headaches, and heavy menstrual flow. Estrogen dominance can be the result of your liver not breaking down this hormone efficiently, so you can also treat your symptoms by enhancing your estrogen metabolism. Later in this chapter, you’ll discover how to accomplish this with dietary choices and supplementation.

Cortisol and thyroid-hormone imbalances can contribute to PMS because they’re important in the functioning of all your hormones—especially those pertaining to ovulation and the release of progesterone. If your PMS is due to imbalances of either cortisol or thyroid hormone, you can treat your symptoms by following the recommendations you’ll find later in this chapter for addressing adrenal and thyroid imbalances.

You don’t have to live with untreated PMS. There’s a lot you can do to tackle the underlying causes and prevent its decidedly unsexy symptoms. Let’s look at several steps you can take to treat PMS—some that are well-known approaches, and a few that are “secrets.” The first two are applicable if low progesterone is contributing to your symptoms; the others can help if your symptoms are due to other causes.

—
Chaste-tree berry.
If you’re low in progesterone but would rather not take hormones, chaste-tree berry can be particularly beneficial for treating PMS. This herb is known as a
phyto-progesterone
because of its ability to promote your body’s progesterone production. (Despite its name, it won’t make you chaste; to the contrary, it can enhance your sex life by helping you treat PMS.) The recommend daily dose is 40 drops of liquid extract, or 175 mg of standardized powdered extract.

—
Natural bioidentical progesterone.
Many women respond well to taking natural bioidentical progesterone for symptoms of PMS due to low progesterone. It should be taken from midcycle (approximately day 14) until your menstrual flow begins (usually around day 28). It’s best applied to your skin as a transdermal oil or cream (later in this chapter, you’ll find a description of these, and
Appendix F
contains detailed information on using them). Typical doses of natural bioidentical progesterone for PMS are between 25 and 100 mg taken each night before bed, although a dose as low as 12 mg may be all you need to mitigate your symptoms and enhance your sexuality.

—
Lifestyle therapy.
Following the Great Sex Lifestyle mapped out earlier in this book helps keep your hormones in balance and PMS under control. Make sure you take your daily supplements, especially your multivitamin, and avoid caffeine; research shows that excessive caffeine makes PMS symptoms more likely. Regular exercise can reduce symptoms by lowering your estrogen level, increasing your circulation, elevating your endorphin production, and helping you fight depression. Minimize your stress level; if stress is unavoidable, manage it wisely. The Great Sex Detox in
Chapter 2
further promotes your body’s ability to keep PMS at bay.

—
Extra supplement support.
Whatever multivitamin or other supplements you take, make sure you get 50 mg of vitamin B
₆
, 1,000 mg of calcium, and 500 mg of magnesium daily. If one of your PMS symptoms is depression, take 1,000 mg of the amino acid tyrosine daily. (Tyrosine should be taken in the morning.)

—
Saint-John’s-wort.
If you have PMS symptoms of weepiness, depression, and major mood shifts, an underlying cause may be a low level of your “feel-good” neurotransmitter serotonin. As you discovered previously in this chapter, your estrogen and serotonin levels rise and fall together. When your estrogen level subsides toward the end of your cycle, your serotonin level also drops, making you much more prone to mood swings and depression before your periods. The herb Saint-John’s-wort can help alleviate these PMS symptoms—ample research has shown its effectiveness in treating depression—which in turn can allow you greater opportunities to experience pleasure. The recommended daily dose is 900 mg standardized to contain 0.3 percent hypericin. (Note: Saint-John’s-wort may affect the actions of certain prescription medications.)

—
Xiao Yao Wan.
In Chinese medicine, symptoms of PMS are often accompanied by a diagnosis of “liver chi stagnation,” which means your chi isn’t circulating freely through your liver and throughout your body. If you have this condition, your PMS symptoms typically include a high level of irritability, frustration, and anger, as well as swollen, painful breasts. The Chinese herbal formula known as Xiao Yao Wan, or Free and Easy Wanderer, which was mentioned in the preceding chapter as a treatment for menstrual cramps, can effectively move your chi and boost your libido at the same time. It can reduce irritability and anger before your periods, and help you feel relaxed, content, and as its name suggests, free and easy. It’s made by many companies, and dosages vary; follow the recommendations on the product label. (see
Appendix C
for supplier information.)

—
Aromatherapy.
The essential oil bergamot, a lovely musky-smelling citrus oil, can help you relax, balance your emotions, and gently relieve PMS symptoms. Bergamot is recommended if you’ve been under excessive stress or have trouble expressing your emotions, and it’s also used to stimulate libido blocked by depression and frustration. You can apply it with a spray dispenser to your chest and abdomen twice a day to help allay symptoms. (Bergamot can increase your skin’s photosensitivity, so refrain from using it before you’re exposed to sunlight.)

—
Acupressure.
As you’ve discovered, “stuck chi” can lead to pain and emotional irritability, and lower the quality of your sex life. The acupressure point Liver 3 can be especially helpful for PMS because it gets your chi moving again; it’s also known in Chinese medicine as
Great Thoroughfare
, due to its importance as a conduit for the flow of chi. To relieve symptoms of PMS and support your sexual energy as well, you or your partner can press firmly on this point for one to three minutes, at least twice daily as needed. For added impact, bergamot can be applied to the point; this may stimulate the point and help keep your chi moving. (To locate the Liver 3 point, see
Appendix A
.)

—
Flower essences.
By helping create subtle emotional shifts and engender calm, peaceful feelings, flower essences can be a soothing way of supporting other approaches to preventing and relieving PMS. The flower essence known as
impatiens
can help you stabilize your emotions if you’re feeling impatient, agitated, burned-out, hurried, and harried. It nurtures your ability to slow down, relax, be centered in the moment, and get in touch with your feelings—including feelings of sensuality. Another flower essence,
cayenne
, can help you move past feelings of being emotionally blocked, and gain a sense of new, forward-moving growth and energy in your life. Flower essences can be taken every few hours until symptoms subside (usually within 12 hours); the typical dose is a few pellets or drops under your tongue.

Unburdening Your Libido from Heavy Menstrual Flow

If you have heavy “moon flow,” it can drain your energy and libido, even if it’s not accompanied by painful cramping. Alleviating heavy menstrual flow can make a big difference in how you experience your periods, and create new possibilities for your sexual energy (which doesn’t necessarily have to involve sex). A segment of your cycle you once thought doomed to the discomforts of “bad moons” can instead become a positive time in your life.

Heavy menstrual bleeding has the potential to dramatically decrease your libido because it can lead to anemia due to iron deficiency. Iron, a mineral incorporated into your red blood cells, allows oxygen to be carried to every cell in your body. You need iron and oxygen not only to sustain your life and perform your body’s functions, but also to convert the amino acid tyrosine into dopamine, a brain chemical that enables you to feel pleasure. If you’re chronically anemic because of heavy menstrual bleeding, inadequate dopamine can make you susceptible to lower libido and diminished sexual response, along with feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness.

As you explored earlier in this chapter, ancient practitioners of Chinese medicine referred to a woman’s menstrual flow as her Heavenly Water. From a traditional Chinese medical perspective, if you have heavy Heavenly Water, it’s due to a chi deficiency, and if you have blood clotting as well, it’s the result of stuck chi. From a modern Western perspective, the underlying causes of heavy menstrual bleeding and clotting are often hormone imbalances. By addressing the underlying causes of the condition, from both an Eastern and Western standpoint, you can lift the heaviness from your Heavenly Water and transform your periods.

The most common hormone imbalances that can cause heavy menstrual bleeding involve your estrogen and progesterone levels. As you’ve discovered, progesterone plays a key role in preventing the estrogen in your body from being too prolific, and helps keep the endometrial lining that builds up in your uterus every month from becoming too thick. Since the endometrial lining sloughs off and becomes your menstrual flow, having adequate progesterone can keep your Heavenly Water light.

Heavy menstrual flow can be due to another common hormone imbalance—a low thyroid-hormone level. As you’ve seen, you can have low thyroid hormone even if laboratory blood testing says you’re normal—a condition known as “subclinically low” thyroid hormone. (see
Appendix E
for more information on thyroid-hormone testing.) If you have heavy menstrual flow and low thyroid hormone, you may benefit from nutritional support for your thyroid gland and natural thyroid-hormone medication. Some women with low thyroid hormone, including some who are subclinically low, have less menstrual bleeding—as well as more regular cycles, improved ability to lose weight, and increased libido—when taking nutritional supplements and natural thyroid-hormone medication.

Hormone imbalances can lead to other conditions that can cause you to have heavy menstrual flow, including uterine polyps, uterine fibroids, and ovarian cysts. If you have heavy menstrual flow, it’s recommended that you see a gynecologist for a thorough evaluation to rule out these and other conditions.

Let’s look at ways you can help restore your sexual response throughout your cycle by lightening your Heavenly Water:

—
Natural bioidentical progesterone.
If you have heavy bleeding due to low progesterone, you may stand to gain from taking natural bioidentical progesterone, applied to your skin as a transdermal oil or cream. The recommended dose is between 25 and 100 mg, taken each night at bedtime during the second half of your cycle. (You’ll find guidelines for applying transdermal progesterone later in this chapter and in
Appendix F
.)

—
Thyroid support.
As mentioned above, in the event that you have heavy bleeding along with low thyroid hormone—and this applies whether you’re subclinically low or not—you can gain from taking nutritional support for your thyroid gland, as well as from natural thyroid medication. Nutritional support consists of supplementation with tyrosine, iodine, and selenium; and natural thyroid medication may include a product such as Armour Thyroid or Naturthroid. Descriptions of all of these appear in the following pages in our discussion of thyroid imbalances; the dose amounts and other recommendations suggested there are appropriate for treating heavy menstrual flow associated with low thyroid hormone.

—
Tips from Chinese medicine.
According to Chinese medicine, you can treat heavy menstrual flow by correcting the chi deficiency that causes it. You can strengthen your chi through the Great Sex Lifestyle recommended earlier in this book and by balancing your hormones. Healthy lifestyle choices also keep the chi circulating in your pelvis, which can make a big difference in the quality of your menstrual flow by alleviating the stuck chi that causes clotting. You can also treat heavy menstrual bleeding by taking Chinese herbal formulas before your Heavenly Water begins flowing each month. To have a formula made specifically for you, see a qualified practitioner of Chinese herbal medicine. (see
Appendix B
.) One standard formula, known as Myomin, available from Chinese herbalists and online, combines four herbs to treat heavy bleeding due to excess estrogen by lowering your estrogen level. The recommended dose is two pills twice daily.

Acupressure can also treat heavy menstrual flow by strengthening your chi; press on your Spleen 6 point for one to three minutes each day. To move your chi and treat clotting with heavy menstrual bleeding, press on your Liver 3 point for one to three minutes each day. (see
Appendix A
to locate both points.)

If you have heavy menstrual flow that leads to anemia due to iron deficiency, two other useful options should be mentioned here. While these don’t directly address the causes of heavy menstrual bleeding, they can play a supportive role by helping you overcome related issues that can get in the way of your sexuality.