We popped in to see The Cheshire Acupuncturist for a quick chat all about women’s health. From easing painful periods and balancing hormones to supporting fertility and pregnancy, we asked her how acupuncture can play a supportive role through different stages of a woman’s life. The Cheshire Acupuncturist—also known as Kate—specialises in acupuncture for fertility and is incredibly knowledgeable about women’s health and wellbeing. She creates a warm, welcoming space for her clients and is passionate about helping women through their fertility journey and feel more in tune with their bodies.
Transcript
Rebecca Jones: Hi Kate. Thanks for joining us today. Just a few questions for you, if that's okay.
How can acupuncture support women through different phases of their menstrual cycle and what changes might they notice after treatment?
Kate Jackson: That's a really good question.
So, with acupuncture, we can support women through each phase, there are four different phases. So we have the menstruation phase, which is your period. Then we have the other half of the follicular phase, which is the lead up to ovulation, ovulation and your luteal phase. So in each of those phases, we have got different hormonal fluctuations going on, and acupuncture can really help to harmonise that.
So, on your period, we might, or we will get your blood moving so that that can leave the uterus efficiently and help with things like cramping and calm inflammation. In the follicular phase, we might help to stimulate blood flow to help the developing follicles, so things like egg quality.
Ovulation will help the release of the egg from the follicle. And then in the luteal phase again, we'll focus more on blood flow and harmonising progesterone, which is obviously really important for fertility.
Rebecca Jones: Yeah, amazing. It sounds like there's so many benefits, on fertility. So women struggling with fertility, what's one acupuncture approach that's shown promising results in your practice?
Kate Jackson: So I generally, generally will recommend women to come and see me weekly just because we do really need to work with women in each phase of the cycle, to harmonise the cycle as much as possible. And, we know that the follicle and the egg take approximately 120 days to develop. So anything that we do within that timeframe is gonna benefit the quality of that egg when it's released to ovulation. So having acupuncture weekly in that time can really support that, and that's probably one of the best things that a female can do to support their fertility.
You can of course, have it biweekly, but you will get better results having it weekly.
Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Okay. Brilliant. And many of our followers at femme experience hormonal imbalances. Could you share a simple acupressure point they could try at home between sessions?
Kate Jackson: Yeah. So there's a point called Kidney 3, and it's on the inside of your ankle, and you've got the medial malleolus, which is the posh way of saying the bone on the inside of the ankle and you'll feel like a spongy depression between the bone and your Achilles tendon. You can Google that, you could easily find it. And if you stimulate that point for a good 10 minutes per day, it's a really good point for harmonising both excess issues and deficient issues or conditions.
So it's a good point for everybody.
Rebecca Jones: Brilliant. I'll be trying that when I get home later.
Kate Jackson: Yeah.
Rebecca Jones: We've heard acupuncture can help with pregnancy symptoms. What's the most surprising benefit you've seen for your pregnant clients?
Kate Jackson: Uh, there's two things that we generally will see patients for, and that's pelvic girdle pain.
And it's because acupuncture is such an amazing anti-inflammatory. Um, and also morning sickness, which is what a lot of women will experience in the first trimester. Um, we have a point on the wrist that can really help, um, support that as much as possible.
Rebecca Jones: Brilliant. Thank you very much.
Kate Jackson: You're welcome.
