Great Sex, Naturally (18 page)

The topic of pelvic pain can involve complex issues that go beyond the reach of this chapter; there are numerous resources, as well as support groups, for women suffering from these conditions. However, if you experience pelvic pain, especially vulvar pain, there’s one method of treatment you should know about—a unique do-it-yourself approach that can be highly effective, and that too few women are aware of, known as vaginal steam baths. Not only can this method relieve or cure pelvic pain, but it’s also a soothing, nourishing way to connect with your sexuality and femininity.

Vaginal steam baths, which have been used traditionally in Korea and parts of South America, provide you with numerous other potential benefits. They can help decrease skin inflammation if you have a vulvar yeast infection, and help heal your tissues if you’ve had an episiotomy, vulvar biopsy, or other surgical procedure in or near your vulva. They can also loosen and relax your PC muscle, promote increased circulation, and may allow for easier penetration with intercourse if you have a condition associated with pelvic pain.

Vaginal steam baths are easy to do, and you can make each bath different by including various herbs or essential oils for added benefits. To get started, boil four cups of filtered water and pour it into a large stainless-steel or glass bowl. Add any herbs or essential oils you’d like to use, as described below, then place the bowl beneath a patio chair, or other type of chair with openings or slats in the seat, so you can sit with your naked vulva exposed to the steam. (Vaginal steam baths might be more aptly named
vulvar steam baths
, since the steam doesn’t reach your vagina, which is internal.) Alternatively, you can place the bowl in a toilet, after turning off the toilet’s water source and flushing to empty the water.

Before exposing your delicate vulvar tissues to the steam, test it carefully with your inner wrist so you won’t burn yourself. Once you’ve established a comfortable temperature, stay seated in your steam bath, allowing your vulva and entire pelvis to relax, for about 15 minutes or until the steam subsides. For treating most kinds of pelvic pain, it’s recommended that you do steam baths at least once a day for a week, and continue as needed to relieve your symptoms. To provide extra healing benefits, you can add the following herbs and essential oils, alone or in combination, to your steam baths:

—
Red clover.
This plant has been used in Western herbal medicine for decades to strengthen and tone the pelvic organs and tissues; it’s often recommended to help prepare the uterus for childbirth. Sprinkle one teaspoon of dried or fresh red clover into your steam bath.

—
Oregano and tea-tree oil combined.
To relieve pelvic pain and itching related to a vulvar yeast infection, add one teaspoon of dried oregano, or one drop of oregano oil, and two drops of tea-tree oil to your steam bath. Both of these herbs have potent antifungal properties. (For a vulvar yeast infection, steam at least twice daily.)

—
Rose essential oil.
To alleviate vulvar discomfort and moisten your skin and tissues, add three drops of this essential oil to your steam bath. Rose essential oil is also used in aromatherapy to treat physical and emotional imbalances. Physically, it’s recommended for low libido, infertility, and heavy menstrual bleeding. On an emotional level, it’s recommended as a calming and harmonizing agent, and also as a catalyst to create an atmosphere of safety for bringing feelings about sexuality and self-esteem to the surface.

—
Lavender essential oil.
An anti-inflammatory that promotes tissue healing, this essential oil is also used in aromatherapy to promote both physical health (especially for your skin) and emotional harmony (to induce calmness, relieve nervous tension, and support your capacity for love and appreciation of beauty). To enhance your steam bath with lavender’s healing effects, add three drops of lavender essential oil.

—
Rose and lavender essential oils combined.
Adding three drops of each of these essential oils to your steam bath can have a synergistic effect that’s especially helpful in treating vulvar pain. (Even if you don’t have pain, this treatment is recommended as a nurturing experience for this sensitive part of your body, particularly if you feel emotionally disconnected from your pelvis and sexuality.)

—
Red clover, lavender, calendula, and chamomile combined.
To relieve and gently heal any vulvar inflammation or dryness, add one teaspoon of each of these herbs, as either dried or fresh flowers, to your steam bath. Along with the benefits of red clover outlined above, lavender, calendula, and chamomile all have anti-inflammatory and soothing effects on the delicate tissues of your vulva (and they also make a beautiful floating bouquet).

Conclusion: The Culmination of Your Sexual-Core Health

In this chapter, we’ve delved into the fabulous anatomy of your pelvis—the diverse, dynamic region of your body that allows you to experience sex, reach orgasm, menstruate, release eggs, grow a fetus, and more. You’ve discovered exercises and other tools for strengthening your sexual core, enhancing the health of your phenomenal feminine organs, and maximizing your many-splendored potential for pleasure. You’ve also discovered natural, sex-boosting solutions to common challenges that you may encounter in this most vital area of your body.

As you’ve seen throughout this chapter, not only does your pelvis play a pivotal role in your capacity for pleasure, but it’s also the nucleus of your chi and central to your overall health. Now that we’ve explored the keys for optimizing the health of your sexual core, we’re ready to begin a new passage in our journey. In the next chapter, we’ll explore the rich realm of your hormones, and all that you can do to boost your libido and well-being by enhancing your hormonal health. As we move forward, the tools and insights you’ve discovered thus far will merge with many other discoveries you’ll make.

CHAPTER 4

HARMONIZING
YOUR HORMONES

Sex in the Balance

“Our bodies act as incredibly accurate barometers that indicate
how closely we live our lives in-line with our true heart’s desires.”

—C
HRISTIANE
N
ORTHRUP
, M.D.,
T
HE
S
ECRET
P
LEASURES OF
M
ENOPAUSE

Your magnificent hormones drift through your body, profoundly affecting who you are, how you feel, and your overall health and vitality. They constantly influence your thoughts, emotions, behavior, and spirit, often exerting a powerful pull on even your most subtle urges and inclinations. In fact, the word
hormone
derives from
hormé
, Greek for “impulse.”

Perhaps more than anything else, your hormones affect your sexuality, intimately shaping your experiences of love, attraction, and arousal. (
Hormone
is also related to the Greek
ornynai
, which means “to rouse.”) If there’s one thing you can do to enhance the quality of your sexuality, stay healthy, and keep your zest for life, it’s to create and maintain your hormonal balance.

Your hormones are not only an integral part of your personality, but also an extraordinary physiological phenomenon—tiny biologically active substances that are released by your glands, circulate in your body fluids, and have strong effects on parts of your anatomy far from their points of origin. Every day, a choreographed dance takes place within your physical self as these complex, multifaceted substances intermingle to create your unique sexual nature. The intricacies of this dance extend even beyond your body; your hormones ultimately connect you with your environment, inviting you to join with another who can share your passions and pleasures, bond with you, and join you in the dance.

As you go through your life, this choreography passes through many delicate transitions—hormones stimulate the changes of puberty, ovulation, menstruation, fertility, pregnancy, perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause—and a new kind of hormonal harmony gradually emerges during every phase. Each new dance of your sexual health is as elaborate as anything you’ve previously experienced and perhaps even more extraordinary. Even as you pass through new transformations, your hormones continue to move in elegant synchronized patterns, your sexual nature gently recreates itself, and the dance goes on.

In this chapter, you’ll learn about the important and remarkably resilient role your hormones play in your sexuality and health, and many ways you can nurture and preserve their equilibrium through all of your hormonal transitions. You’ll discover which of your hormones you most need to know about to support your sexuality, which are most likely to be out of balance during certain phases of your life, and the essential natural tools you need to correct those imbalances and enhance your libido—including herbal remedies, nutritional support, bioidentical hormones, and more.

Your Six Key Hormones: The Great Sex Sextet

In order to harmonize your hormones and enhance your sexuality, you would do well to become acquainted with the key players in the dance—the chemical messengers that moisten, relax, nourish, empower, energize, revitalize, and sensualize you on a daily basis. Their names are familiar:
estrogen, progesterone, DHEA, testosterone, cortisol
, and
thyroid hormone
. You have other hormones in your body as well, but we call these six the Great Sex Sextet because of the important roles they play in your sexuality. When they’re each in balance, you tend to feel like your healthiest self, capable of practically anything you put your mind to, and fully able to manifest your sexual energy; if they aren’t in balance, you feel robbed of your potential, both sexually and otherwise.

In the pages ahead, as we explore each of these hormones, we’ll focus primarily on how each affects your body, mind, and sexuality from the perspective of Western medicine. We’ll also touch on the nature of hormones from the standpoint of Chinese medicine—their “energetic” qualities, typically overlooked in the West. As you’ve discovered, Chinese medicine teaches that your chi consists of yin and yang energy: yin is inward, contractive, relaxing, moistening, and feminine; and yang is outward, expansive, stimulating, drying, and masculine. As a practitioner trained in both Western science and Chinese medicine, I’ve found that some hormones tend to be more yin, and others more yang, in their effects on your body.

Each hormone in your Great Sex Sextet has a unique place on the yin–yang continuum: Estrogen is the most yin, followed by progesterone, which is mainly yin but with some yang actions, and DHEA is less yin than progesterone. Continuing in ascending order of yang energy, you have testosterone, followed by cortisol, with thyroid hormone being the most yang.

The yin and yang properties of your hormones can also be illustrated with the familiar yin/yang symbol, although it’s important to note that some hormones—particularly progesterone and DHEA—can have both yin and yang effects on your body.