Case Histories - Menopausal Syndrome (4)
A 50-year-old woman had started experiencing menopausal problems
2 years previously after her periods stopped. She complained of
hot flushes, night sweating, some hair loss, nails breaking easily
and backache. Her tongue was slightly Pale and her pulse was weak
in general and especially Weak and Deep on both Rear positions.
Diagnosis
Although she had few symptoms, the prevailing patterns are those
of Kidney Yang deficiency and some Liver-Blood deficiency. The menopausal
symptoms of hot flushes and night-sweating indicate Empty Heat from
Kidney deficiency, as do the backache and hair loss. Since the pulse
is Weak on both Rear positions, the only factor that points to Kidney-Yang
deficiency is the Pale colour of the tongue. As explained in the
chapter on Pathology (ch. 3), in women over 50 a deficiency of the
Kidneys nearly always involves a deficiency of both Yin and Yang,
albeit always in differing proportions. Thus, when Kidney-Yang is
primarily deficient, Kidney-Yin also becomes slightly deficient,
giving rise to the Empty Heat symptoms that cause the menopausal
problems. Figures 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 illustrate this clinical situation.
In this patient, the brittle nails indicate some Liver-Blood deficiency.
Treatment principle
The treatment principle in this case is to tonify Kidney-Yang primarily
and nourish Kidney-Yin secondarily, and to nourish Liver-Blood.
She was treated only with herbal medicine.
Herbal treatment
Since her menopausal symptoms were not very severe and she did not
have many other symptoms, I opted for treating her only with patent
remedies. I used the Women's Treasure's remedies Ease
the Journey - Yang combined with Ease
the Journey - Yin: I suggested 2 tablets of the former in
the morning and 1 of the latter in the evening. The combination
of these two remedies at such a low dose controlled the menopausal
symptoms very effectively after 2 months and she felt much better
in general. I suggested to her that she should continue taking the
remedies for quite a long time to help her during the transition
years. |
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