LIBIDO
One part of a greater conversation around perimenopause/ menopause and how Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) plays an important part in your health and well-being leading up to and through this shift: Libido.
As questions swirl around this time of life, we are delving deep in the coming months, including sharing our thoughts on the Eastern medicine perspective on the top-rated SMV Podcast (find my interview with Katie Thompson on Spotify or where you listen to your favorite podcasts, link below). We often ask what questions you have on our Instagram stories, but if you have one we haven’t addressed, please drop us a line.
Of note, we will soon offer a program called “Second Spring” to help you ease through this time whether you would like to be in your best health and wellbeing to prepare for an easy transition, or if you’re already experiencing uncomfortable symptoms.
So, let’s jump in with LIBIDO. One pillar of TCM is that it treats the individual — it is not a one size fits all.
Not everyone will have the same symptoms. You may experience low sex drive or arousal related to your hormones, but there can be many other reasons.
We tend to experience libido dips in specific times of our lives:
When stress feels overwhelming and chronic/ongoing
When health challenges or illness take a toll, including fatigue
When depression and apathy leave us feeling hopeless, numb
When hormones are out of balance—testosterone, estrogen, etc.— and thyroid/adrenals are affected, creating a cascade of symptoms
With lifestyle challenges, like weight gain/loss, lack of restorative sleep, acute or chronic pain
When relationships are suffering or enduring challenges, or we feel a loss of purpose
When sex is uncomfortable due to vaginal atrophy or dryness
With TCM, we explore what’s contributing to your lack of libido and treat it accordingly.
For example, if you’ve lost interest in sex due to changes in your body like weight gain or fatigue, you can’t imagine expending energy on sex. We address changes in metabolism, transform nutrition into energy, foster restorative sleep, and incorporate movement appropriate for you to help overall energy.
This plan might look like regular acupuncture to nourish and balance Yin and Yang, customized herbal formulas to manage cortisol and balance progesterone/estrogen, and help with fatigue. If pain is involved, we need to address this with acupuncture and herbs, red light therapy, and craniosacral therapy.
Did you know acupuncture has an emotional treatment side to it as well? We can target specific psycho-emotional imbalances, such as loss of purpose, sadness, maintaining flexibility in the face of change, setting clear boundaries, clearing old traumas or repressed emotions. In fact, regular acupuncture has been shown to help you feel more equipped to ‘flow’ with whatever life brings.
Where there is flow, there is no dis-ease.
In TCM terms, we refer to supporting the Kidneys (your Jing and Essence, but also a big hormone balancer), and the Extraordinary Vessels of Chong, Du & Ren, supporting circulation/removing stagnation, nourishing Yin/Blood/Fluids, and clearing heat.
We also look to lifestyle - improving relationships with food around how, when and why you eat specific foods (sugar cravings for instance), providing healthy alternatives to create a shift, improving metabolism (since what used to work might no longer), sharing foods or styles of eating to avoid, and shifting away from consuming activities that deplete your reserves.
Many women notice improvement quickly (typically 5 weeks for increasing arousal and desire) when we treat the root cause of low libido.
We then build on results with consistent care and as needed. You’ll also go home with ear seeds on points specific for balancing energy that you can tap into throughout the day, encouraging vitality and connection to the part of the brain driving libido.
Here’s a huge P.S., It’s not just women affected by low sex drive. Acupuncture and herbs are also helpful for men’s sexual function through some of the same mechanisms in Chinese medicine.
We are sending you encouragement! You are not alone, and if you’d like to improve your libido, we’re here for you.
Questions? Drop us a line at hello@thedesertcanary.com or text us at 512.939.6960—we’d love to hear from you.
Be well,
Brooke & The Desert Canary Team
#libido #vitality #hormonebalancing
#perimenopause #menopause #austintx
