As a Chinese Medicine practitioner, one of my areas of interest is supporting women's experiences of their menstrual cycle.
During a consultation there are lots of details I like to gather in order to find out what the current story is in her body. Sometimes this can be a little overwhelming as these are details she is not strongly connected to (yet), but it also helps to create more awareness over the time, as we see signs and symptoms shift and change.
Some of the details that help me build a good picture of what is going on for her include but are not exclusive to:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Cycle Length
This is the amount of days from the first day of bleeding until the day before the next bleed arrives.
How many days is your cycle on average? It might be a textbook 28, but can just as easily be 26, 29 or 35 days. Perhaps it is quite irregular.
Days of Bleeding
How many days do you bleed for? This includes any days where there is spotting, and even whole days where your period may seem to stop, but then starts up again. A very light period may only last 2-3 days, whereas a heavy period may be up to 7 or 8 days or even longer. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Volume of Blood
How much blood does your body shed each day during your bleed? This is a bit harder to tell now that we have our new fabulous period undies. But essentially, if a woman is losing too much blood we need to figure out why, and if a woman is having a very light period, she may need her blood tonified. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Colour
What colour is your blood? Does it start or end brown? Is it a bright red? A deep red? A dark purple? Does it change across the days? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The more details we can uncover, the clearer we can be in rewriting this story.
Karina x
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