Women Turning to Chiropractic for Menstrual Health, PMS & Pregnancy

Can Chiropractic help premenstrual syndrome? Can chiropractic help the cramping, pain, and bloating of menstruation (dysmenorrhea)? Can chiropractic help those going through menopause - the period of change that arises when menstruation ceases? Millions of women with these conditions have visited chiropractors - why?

YOUR SPINE, NERVES, AND HORMONES:
The female sexual organs - the ovaries, oviducts (tubes), uterus, cervix, vagina, glands and related structures - all need a healthy nerve supply from the spine to function properly. Doctors of chiropractic help see that the sexual organ/spinal column relationship is a healthy one. Let’s discuss some of the common conditions associated with the female reproductive system.

THE HYSTERECTOMY HOAX:
Hysterectomy, the amputation of the uterus, which may also include the removal of both tubes and both ovaries, is done to over 600,000 American women a year. Many are performed on women under 30. "These operations are almost always unnecessary," says Nora W. Coffey, president of the HERS (Hysterectomy Education Resources and Services) Foundation: As Stanley West, M.D. has written in The Hysterectomy Hoax: "More than 90% of all hysterectomies are unnecessary. Worse, the surgery can have long-lasting physical, emotional, and sexual consequences that may undermine your health and well-being." Medical Doctors are not taught the true damage hysterectomy can cause: "I was taught castration (removal of ovaries) does not affect a woman’s sexuality, but women tell quite another story."

MENOPAUSE:
Many doctors consider menopause a disease instead of a normal physiologic state. Because of this attitude, women are often subjected to drug therapies that may cause dangerous side effects. As Robert Mendelsohn, M.D. has stated: Since medical treatment for hot flashes for over five decades has proven to be more dangerous than the disease (what disease?) and since the latest non-hormonal treatments are no less frightening than their predecessors, my best advice to women with hot flashes is to stay away from the doctor. Talk to plenty of other women. Read books on the subject by women who are not doctors. If you must go to a doctor, remember that you are receiving experimental drugs whose side effects become more visible year after year.

SPINAL CARE:
It is no coincidence that many who suffer from menstrual cramps also suffer from neck or back pain. In one study of 122 dysmenorrhea sufferers, most had lower back problems and spinal displacements. Perhaps that is why many women who initially visited a chiropractor for neck or back problems experienced beneficial effects on menstrual cramps, pain and other gynecological problems. There are, however, many women who suffer from menstrual problems and other health conditions who will not go to a chiropractor because: "If I don’t have a backache, why go to the chiropractor?" Many other organs, other than the sexual ones are responsible for reproductive health. For example, chemicals produced by the ovaries and adrenal glands that are essential for reproduction are broken down by the liver. If the liver isn’t working properly, these chemicals can build up to unhealthy levels and cause fibroid tumors in the uterus account for at least 1/3 of all gynecological admissions to hospitals.

THE SPINE/PELVIS RELATIONSHIP:
Many women who suffer from a wide variety of pelvic and gynecological conditions have discovered the natural benefits of chiropractic care. Patients have also observed that menopausal symptoms including depression, hot flashes, back or joint pain, irritability, headaches, or fatigue, have been reduced from chiropractic spinal care. Dr. J.E. Browning is a doctor of chiropractic who has written extensively on the chiropractic management of patients with pelvic problems. His clinical observations have led him to state that, "Various disturbances in pelvic organ function have been successfully managed by chiropractic...symptoms(include) bladder, bowel, gynecologic, and sexual dysfunction..."

PREGNANCY, YOUR BODY, YOUR BABY:
Chiropractic if you are pregnant?? ABSOLUTELY!! Keeping your spine free from vertebral subluxation complex is one of the best things you can do if you are pregnant. If there’s one group of people who need chiropractic spinal checkups more than any other, it’s pregnant women.

Pregnant women need their bodies to be as healthy and as strong as possible in order to handle the rigors of pregnancy and childbirth. Chiropractic care will help ensure that the reproductive and other systems so essential for a healthy pregnancy receive a nerve supply from the spinal column without interference. The slightest interference to the nerve supply could adversely affect the mother and developing fetus.

PREGNANT WOMEN HAVE SPECIAL CONCERNS:
Pregnant women have many concerns: staying pregnant, carrying the baby to full-term, morning sickness, the normal development of the baby, backaches, leg pain, not to mention a safe labor.

Can Chiropractic help ease their minds? In the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, a number of practitioners commented on the effectiveness of spinal care for pregnant women.

The following are just a few of their remarks:
"For normal patients, correction of vertebral subluxations definitely helps normal function and rehabilitation. Manipulation can be of great value in normalizing the body functions of women with problems of pregnancy, such as toxemia."

"Manipulative therapy...normalizes functions of the pituitary, adrenal, ovarian, and placental systems, including the craniosacral medication requirement...Postpartum depression is a rarity in patients receiving...manipulative therapy."

COMMON QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS REGARDING CHIROPRACTIC AND PREGNANCY:
1) Is chiropractic care safe in pregnancy?
Very safe and very sensible for both mother and baby.

2) How late in pregnancy is it possible to get an adjustment?
Patients have received adjustments even during labor.

3) Can spinal care help with postpartum depression?For years Chiropractic’s beneficial effects on emotional stress and personality have been noted and documented.

4) Can my baby receive chiropractic care?
Infants a few hours old have been given spinal checkups and adjustments (if needed).