Acupuncture for PCOS: Week One
Why is acupuncture sometimes recommended for people with PCOS?
Feeling out of touch with your body?
Do you often feel out of touch with your body? Like by the time you actually take rest, you're already weeks late? I've been feeling that way my whole life. Some recent stress in my life has alerted me to the fact that I have trouble truly listening to my body about what she wants and needs. I can't necessarily hear and interpret the way she needs me to, because I don't quite feel at home in her. Everything for me is cerebral - show me the data. I analyze every situation with all the facts I can possibly gather, and work to attach rational logic to it. And I rarely assess the associated bodily feelings or emotions with any given situation. Don't get me wrong - I love my analytical mind. I love the way I feel like I can tackle any situation or solve problems like the puzzles they are. But I'm realizing and experiencing the damaging effects of always residing in my head, and being out of tune with my body.
The Sympathetic Autonomic Nervous System Takeover in PCOS
Many of us with PCOS experience anxiety and chronic stress. We're more frequently operating in what's known as the "sympathetic autonomic nervous system", which is best known for governing our fight or flight response. The fight or flight response is not only triggered by actual danger in front of us - we can activate it ourselves simply by permitting, producing or feeding stressful thoughts. Allowing our bodies to exist in a state of chronic stress can produce a plethora of negative effects on our health.
"We're more frequently operating in what's known as the sympathetic autonomic nervous system"
When in this state, our adrenal glands release hormones like adrenaline and cortisol that prompt the body to take action. Our heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing pace all elevate. Glucose is released for additional energy. And, importantly, the cortisol released will reduce the effectiveness of other bodily functions not immediately necessary for survival. This includes suppressing our immune, digestive, and reproductive systems. Cognitive systems are typically impacted as well, causing us to focus on the stressful situation at hand, drawing our attention away from everything else and making it difficult to focus.
…And the long-term effects associated with consistent SANS
If our bodies are consistently exposed to surges of adrenaline and cortisol from this fight or flight state, we can experience long-term health consequences. Anxiety, depression, digestive issues, headaches, muscle pain or tension, fatigue, heart complications, stroke, trouble sleeping, weight gain, brain fog, and memory impairment are just a few of the ways we can suffer. I've been feeling many of these consequences after not truly listening to my body for far too long. It took a major life event for me to realize how unsuccessful my attempts to manage my stress were, which is why I'm here. Research suggests that acupuncture may be effective in helping us to exit SANS and enter PANS, the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system responsible for bodily functions when at rest. These include those functions the SANS suppresses, like immune reproductive and digestive function. I'm going to walk you through my journey with acupuncture to see the ways it may or may not help my symptoms of PCOS, and whether this healing modality of reconnecting with my body can effectively help learn to exit my sympathetic nervous system.
My first experience with acupuncture
My Consultation with Lani, licensed acupuncturist (Pro Tip: only see licensed acupuncturists!)
On day 1, my acupuncturist, Lani, came downstairs to greet me and bring me up to her office. Immediately I could feel her calming presence. I have a crippling fear of needles, so this was very much so welcomed. I followed her up the carpeted stairs, and rounded the corner to a hallway painted pale yellow. We went into what felt like a conference room together. It was bright, with glass doors trimmed with mahogany wood. I sat across the long wooden table from her, and her soft eyes comforted me. She walked through the forms I had filled out online, and together we discussed my (rather long) list of concerns. We talked through it all. The stressful events in my life over the last couple of years, especially the last few months, the sleepless nights, the headaches, feelings of apathy, absence of a period since coming off the pill, severe tension, digestion issues, unresolved childhood trauma, and more.
“I consistently have been waking up from 3:00-5:00 AM for months, a time when the body typically processes grief”
Something stood out to her about my sleep patterns, that I consistently have been waking up from 3:00-5:00 AM for months, a time when the body typically processes grief. She seemed a bit said for me, like she couldn't quite process why someone so young had been experiencing and processing so much stress. But she gave me hope that I would get better.
The Treatment Process (Step 1: Skepticism)
I quietly lay there, freaking out, scared of needles entering me, of something bad happening. Telling myself this was stupid and I should leave, this would never work for me. The battle with my rational mind telling me that a bunch of needles wouldn't solve my problems. I snapped out of it, and instead told Lani, "I'm terrified of needles". I could see the smile in her eyes even though she was wearing a blue surgical mask. "That's ok", she told me. "I'll use the smallest needles, and I'll guide you through everything you should feel, what's normal, and what's not. If at any point you feel uncomfortable, just tell me and we'll stop". I unclenched my butt muscles I had unknowingly been tightening since I got there, and relaxed my eyebrows that were scrunched so closely together they were becoming one.
Step 2: Needle Insertion on Front of Body, Pain Level 1/10
Lani first disinfected my skin in the areas she was going to place the needles using an alcohol pad. Then she sensitized the area using her fingers, I felt a quick tap, and the ever so slightest pinch that felt reminiscent of a mosquito bite. "Ok!" she said, after the first one was inserted near my right knee. "That's it?" I asked. I was proud of myself for not punching the wall at the thought of a needle entering me. She continued the insertion process, and I didn't even curse once (that's a big deal for me, ok?). She told me pressure, or a slight degree of pain, was a good thing, a sign that energy was moving so the body could rest and the mind could do the same.
Step 3: As Usual, unable to exit my head…
Lani exited so I could explore the process, and sensations in my body, on my own. A heaviness overwhelmed my body. I had some trouble getting out of my head, and telling myself I wasn't going to die by bursting an artery if I moved my hand an inch and the needle budged. Eventually the bodily calm centered me on my breath. My mind started to quiet, but I can't say I was transported to another dimension. I was thinking about my stressors, consciously trying to bring them to the forefront of my mind in attempt to send them on their way. When that didn’t work, I went to my mental to-do list and thought about the cleaning supplies I needed to restock and the flight I had to book to go to my friend's wedding and then visit my sister. Then I thought about all the text messages I'd gotten in the last few days that I had forgotten to answer (yet again).
Step 4: It probably won’t work for me, but we already paid, so let’s flip over and humor this lovely lady
After about 20 minutes of me laying there like a human circuit board, Lani came back in and removed the needles. It was time to flip over and address the base of my neck, back of the head, shoulders, and back. Lani placed two stones in my palms to help ground me through the process. “Ah yes of course,” I thought. “Stones, the missing ticket.” I’m such a jack ass.
Apparently the right side of my back holds a lot of tension, because I twitched quite a bit anytime Lani inserted a needle on that side. I told myself to suck it up. Let the chi do it’s thing, or whatever. We repeated the process where she exited the room and I laid there… waiting to fall into a land where Peter Pan whisked me away to a place that would make all my problems disappear.
In my trance-like state, I couldn't believe it. The ocean waves sound machine actually brought me to a beach. My mind was quiet, peaceful, tranquil. There were no problems. I had a faint awareness of the stones in my hands and the bed beneath my body, but mostly, I was on that beach, with the waves rushing by me. Holy shit, I thought, I'm relaxed. I am actually relaxed. Have I ever actually felt this way before?
Step 5: Scraping
When Lani came back into the room, she removed the needles one more time. She applied some essential oils to my back and neck, and used a jade stone for scraping, connecting the head back to the body, and helping with breathing. I could've laid there with her doing that until I died, quite frankly. When I sat up, for the first time in who knows how long, I didn't feel like I wanted to run out of my skin. I felt peace.
What’s Next?
The jury is out on whether acupuncture will produce long-term positive effects for me, but so far this skeptic who long thought somatic healing modalities would never work for me might be changing her tune. Lani said we'd need to work together for at least two months with the amount of tension I'm holding, and for how long, but that I might be able to start seeing results after 8 sessions. I'll be back next week with my experience. Stay tuned!
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5466220/#:~:text=Several%20clinical%20and%20animal%20experimental,testosterone%20in%20patients%20with%20PCOS.
https://www.yinovacenter.com/blog/using-chinese-medicine-to-treat-pcos/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22187-cortisol
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542195/
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-happens-to-your-body-during-the-fight-or-flight-response/