The Holistic Approach to Women’s Health 

Women’s Health most often refers to conditions that are uniquely female:  disorders of the female reproductive system.  Evaluating your condition holistically, then treating it with natural methods without side -effects are the hallmarks of women’s healthcare at South Bay Total Health.

Virtually all disorders of the female reproductive system involve hormonal imbalance.  The primary hormones involved are the Estrogens:  Estrone – E1, Estradiol – E2, and Estriol -E3; Progesterone, Testosterone, DHEA, and Cortisol.

To a lesser extent, the thyroid hormones are also involved.  In addition, deficiencies of key micronutrients — vitamins and minerals — can be involved, either as the direct root cause of some disorders, or as an aggravating cause once the condition is initiated through other means.  Environmental toxins, especially the category known as Xeno-Estrogens — artifical chemicals whose chemical structure is similar to naturally occurring estrogens — can also cause or contribute to disorders of the reproductive system.  Finally, stress is a crucial factor for some women.  In nature, long-term stress, which the body interprets as a famine, will specifically inhibit the reproductive system.  In most cases of infertility,  stress is usually a major factor.

While the number of causes of female reproductive disorders is relatively small, there are a large number of ways these imbalances can manifest, based on subtle differences in genetic makeup, nutrition, environment and lifestyle.  These factors, coupled with the approach used by the conventional medical system to compartmentalize every individual symptom as a separate illness requiring separate treatment, means that often the underlying unifying causes may be missed.

From the perspective of Chinese Medicine, most of the disorders listed below also involve an imbalance of Qi, Yin, Yang, Blood and Essence, the so called “Vital Fluids.”  Specific acupuncture protocols and Chinese Herbs will often be recommended as part of your treatment protocol to address these crucial energetic imbalances, which more traditional Western biochemical approaches — even the holistic Naturopathic version of biochemistry — may not be able to treat.

Conditions Treated 

Testing and Assessment 

Testing for hormonal imbalances is done by measuring salivary levels of hormones.  There is a growing body of evidence that for steroid hormones, which includes the sex hormones, salivary levels are more representative of levels in the tissues and are therefore a more accurate method of correcting hormonal problems.

Other important hormone tests include urine testing for Estrogen breakdown products, which is important for assessing risk factors for breast cancer, and urine tests for bone metabolites, which shows risk and treatment progress for osteoporosis.

Also, testing for Iodine levels is also important, since Iodine is a cofactor for all hormone absorption at the cellular receptor level. Insufficient levels of iodine are a risk factor for all gynecological problems, especially fibrocystic breasts, breast cancer, ovarian cysts, uterine fibroids and uterine cancer.

For more basic information about the types of testing routinely used at South Bay Total Health, Click Here.