Re: acupuncture

January 6, 2004

I just requested a referral from my naturopathic doctor to an

acupuncturist yesterday. As a friend said to me, you might as well

exhaust all your options before undergoing surgery. I'm dealing with

infertility and fibroids.

A friend of mine relayed a story where a woman she knew had

acupuncture treatments that didn't really help shrink her fibroids.

The practitioner did acupuncture though specifically to control

bleeding prior to her myomectomy and the surgeon commented on the

fact that patient had no bleeding issues during the surgery at all;

evidently acupuncture can restrict blood flow pretty acurately. Here

are some research synopsis that you can refer to:

Treatment of Uterine Fibroids with Complementary Medicine

Reduction of blood flow impedance in the uterine arteries of

infertile women with electro-acupuncture

(not talking directly about fibroids but it does talk about changing

the blood flow and hormones two things that are of interest)

I find the most frustrating thing about tales of fibroid reduction

and " going away " is the lack of concrete information such as how big

were the fibroids ahead of time, what was the normal expansion and

constriction during the menstrual cycle, what was the size after

they " got better " , what kind of fibroid was it, and what was the

hormonal profile of the patient (something I'm making up but I think

they should know -- which hormones are out of wack, body mass index,

age and known proximity to menopause).

Ann

P.S. - I know I've been posting a lot lately, hopefully I'm not being

annoying, I am just feeling the need to help out with information --

it makes me feel more empowered. I've also been considering whether

or not I should change careers and go into medicine, it's been

something that I've toyed with for years but it is a big change from

my career in web and graphic design.

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