Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom (32 page)

Manual Therapies

Get a total body massage at least once every other week for two months. Notice how you feel after the massage.

Find a physical therapist trained in the Wurn technique, a noninvasive, nonsurgical type of deep tissue massage developed by Larry and Belinda Wurn that’s performed by specially trained physical therapists. The treatment is done over a series of five consecutive days and breaks up pelvic and abdominal adhesions caused by injury, surgery, or infection. It often eliminates menstrual cramps and also helps in a wide variety of other conditions, including infertility from blocked tubes, chronic pelvic pain, pain with intercourse, and even small bowel obstruction. (see
figure 6
.) All of this is described in detail in their book,
Miracle Moms, Better Sex, Less Pain
(Med-Art, 2009), and on the website
www.miraclemoms.net
. (For more information, contact Clear Passage Therapies at 352-336-1433 or visit
www.mclearpassage.com
.)

Consider Maya traditional massage. Indigenous Mayan healers in Central America have long used a technique called Maya abdominal massage to treat many conditions of the pelvic organs, including painful periods, endometriosis, bladder infections, and more. Though this treatment is not as extensive as the Wurn technique, it can also be very effective—and less expensive. Maya abdominal massage practitioners report that this tech nique reduces adhesions from old surgeries, endometriosis, fibroid tumors, and ovarian cysts. (For more information, including a directory of certified practitioners of Maya abdominal massage, visit
www.arvigomassage.com
.)

Get reflexology. Treatment involving specific pressure points on the ear, hand, and foot has also been shown to relieve PMS symptoms. The usual length of treatment with a trained reflexologist is thirty minutes once per week for eight weeks. An entire program of pressure point therapy to relieve PMS, dysmenorrhea, and endometrio sis symptoms can be found in Jeanne Blum’s book
Woman Heal Thyself
.
⁵⁵

FIGURE 6: ADHESIONS IN PELVIC ORGANS

Adhesions are filmy areas of connective tissue resulting from surgery, trauma, or infection that can cause pain and infertility.

Try acupressure. Licensed acupuncturist and TCM practitioner Sandra Chiu recommends massaging the following four points with good, strong pressure for premenstrual problems or cramps:

Large intestine 4 (he gu)

Spleen 6 (san yin jiao)

Spleen 8 (di ji)

Kidney 5 (shui quan)

When looking for a point, she advises, you will often find it by the tender, sore, or even bruise-like sensation you feel when you press on it. This is a sign of congestion at the point, and using massage can help promote movement in the channel and improve your symptoms. Massage into each point for a good three to five minutes, even if it’s sensitive or slightly painful at first. The tenderness will go away after several strokes.

Chiu also recommends heat and massage on the lower abdomen/pelvis area for a day or two before you expect your period, or when you start to feel its impending onset. Hot water bottles and heat packs are soothing when placed on the abdomen for fifteen to twenty minutes a day.

Detoxification

Do something every day to work up a sweat. Get at least twenty to thirty minutes of aerobic-type exercise five times a week.
⁵⁶
Brisk walking is all that is necessary. This is beneficial for several reasons, including the fact that sweating is a natural way to detoxify. Also, exercise increases levels of endorphins (naturally occurring morphine-like substances that help the body deal with depression and physical pain) and lowers levels of stress hormones, which decreases cellular inflammation. It is estimated that half of all depression cases can be helped through exercise alone. (See
chapter 18
.) (By the way, yoga is also helpful for a number of reasons, including the fact that it often relieves cramps.)