The following is a case history sent by Jason Smith in Madrid
Symptoms
A woman aged 43 seeks treatment
for painful periods. The periods last three days and are extremely painful. She feels cold in general, but
the cold is more intense at period time.
The period is regular (30 days), lasts 3 days, with little bleeding, and the color is dark red with small clots. The pain is very intense, and is felt around the area of Ren-4/Ren-3. A warm bottle alleviates the pain along with analgesics. The period has always been very painful, especially after the age of 18.
The tongue has a normal color with a thin coating with root. However, the sublingual veins appeared very dark. This patient was a semi professional swimmer, practicing intensely around the age of 13-18.
Diagnosis
The main pattern is a very
obvious case of Cold in the Uterus (nature of pain, feeling of cold and
alleviation of the pain by a warm bottle). The Cold in the Uterus led to Blood
Stasis, as evidenced by the clots, the dark blood and the dark purple
sublingual veins.
Treatment
Following the four phases of the
menstrual cycle, I decided to center the treatment on phase 4 (pre-menstrual
phase), since this is the best time to expel the pathogenic factor, in this
case Cold, from the Uterus.
With acupuncture, I used the
Chong Mai, with SP-4 and P-6, and a moxa box around the area of Ren-4.
With herbal medicine, the patient
was instructed to take four tablets of Wen Jing Tang.
After the first
period, the pain was reduced by about 50%. After the second period, the pain
was reduced by a further 25%. After the third period, and up to date, the
patient only feels a very slight pain.
For prevention,
the patient was instructed to use a moxa box before the period every now and
then, to prevent a new invasion of Cold.
Observations
This is a very
clear example of how a pathogenic factor can invade the body (after swimming
during her puberty, incidentally a time when Chong, Ren and Du are in a very
vulnerable state), and remain for about 30 years. It also shows how, no matter
how much time has elapsed, pathogenic factors must be expelled.
It is also
interesting to note that this patient reported having many times sexual
intercourse without any protection, and despite that, never getting pregnant.
This is probably due to the fact that Cold has been blocking the Uterus, and
thus preventing fertilization: this is infertility from a Shi (Full) condition.
