Patient's question:
My cousin has been married for over ten years and now wants to have a child. However, she has always had irregular periods and is worried it might affect her ability to get pregnant. She wants to seek treatment to solve the problem but doesn't want to take medication. Someone told her that acupuncture at specific points can now be used for treatment, so she wants to ask if acupuncture at these points is effective for irregular periods.Doctor's answer:
If for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), irregular menstruation may be due to two types of conditions: qi stagnation and blood stasis, or qi and blood deficiency. However, for specific conditioning methods, patients should go to a formal TCM hospital's gynecology department for a follow-up visit and consult a TCM practitioner for a definitive diagnosis and advice. But personally, I recommend first going to a formal hospital's gynecology department for a thorough examination to identify the causes of irregular menstruation and rule out the possibility of organic diseases.