articles
China Elevator Stories
A Cure To My Menstrual Problems
I go to see a Chinese doctor at a TCM hospital in October 2013.
30/01/2014
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
I had been dealing with menstrual problems that I wanted to treat, so I went to the gynecological department. The doctor prescribed a mix of herbs, ear acupuncture, and moxibustion. After a week, I felt quite good about the treatment. But there was one unusual thing—my period was one day overdue. I assumed this was because of the medicine, which included herbs meant to stop heavy bleeding.
I went to see the doctor again, and she asked me to do a pregnancy test. I had already taken an early pregnancy test at home, which showed negative, but the doctor made a hand gesture that seemed to say, “You can’t trust those tests.”
Off I went to the lab. They took my blood and urine, and I was told I would have to wait until the next day for some of the results. The woman conducting the urine tests looked at my results. “Why is this one positive?” she asked, though I had no idea which test she was referring to. “Are you pregnant? You need to take another urine test.”
So, off I went to the bathroom again. Afterward, I returned to the lab, carrying a little cup of urine across the hospital floor.
The woman dipped a paper strip into the cup, then took it out and stared at it for a long time. When the result seemed stable, she consulted her colleagues. Together, they decided that the result was unclear—it showed a weak positive. My eyes filled with happy tears at the thought that I might be pregnant, but I tried to hold them back since the results weren’t definitive and I could be mistaken.
When I showed the doctor my results, she congratulated me. After asking if I wanted to have a baby (or rather keep it, since abortions aren’t uncommon in China), she said we needed to monitor the progress. We still had to wait for the blood test results, but in the meantime, she prescribed hormones and Chinese herbs said to nourish the uterus.
Since then, I’ve stopped taking hormones. I read about their side effects and the potential for them to cause cancer if they aren’t bioidentical. Moreover, the blood test results showed that my hormone levels were normal. I also stopped taking herbal medicine, as many TCM herbs are contraindicated for pregnant women.
Have you ever taken a pregnancy test that didn’t show a clear result?