Prognosis and Prevention
Both acupuncture and herbs give good results in menorrhagia and metrorrhagia. Treatment with
herbs is slightly more successful especially for the Deficiency-type conditions.
The most difficult to treat is that from Kidney-Yin deficiency and the easiest is that from
Blood-Heat.
Obviously, if the uterine bleeding has an organic cause such as carcinoma of the cervix or uterus,
myoma or endometrial polyp, results will be much worse (see below). In the case of carcinoma
of the cervix or uterus the prognosis is the worst as, by the time bleeding appears, the carcinoma
is quite advanced. Bleeding from myomas or polyps can be stopped but it will necessarily take
much longer than in functional bleeding.
As for prevention, any woman who has a tendency to, or has been cured of, menorrhagia should
take certain precuations. She should avoid overwork as this depletes the Kidneys and may lead to
bleeding from Kidney-Qi not holding Blood, or from Kidney Empty-Heat agitating the Blood.
She should avoid excessive sexual activity as this also depletes the Kidneys and may lead to
menorrhagia in one of the two ways described above. She should abstain from spicy foods and
alcohol (except occasionally) as these can create Blood-Heat which very easily causes bleeding.
Finally, she should avoid emotional stress (if at all possible) as this may lead to Fire and
therefore bleeding from Blood-Heat.
Western Differentiation
Menorrhagia and metrorrhagia may be either functional or organic. Practitioners of Chinese
medicine need to be particularly aware of the possible organic causes of uterine bleeding, which
are:
Carcinoma of the cervix
Endometrosis
Carcinoma of the uterus
Myomas
Endometrial polyps