This is not a piece on how to prescribe homeopathically during menopause. It is a piece that spins together medical, biological and spiritual issues. It is about the journey women take, and how knowledge of our wonderful homeopathic remedies can help point the way through. We all have the ability to heal ourselves, but we cannot do so if we cannot remember who we are. Our internal health is informed, not only by our external environment, but by our self- image. Healing is about re-remembering, re-defining and re-sourcing ourselves. We cannot remember ourselves without self-knowing. We cannot re-source ourselves without self-love. We cannot re-define ourselves without knowing the way back to our roots, which is no longer marked on the map.
I wholeheartedly believe that our homeopathic remedies are the spirit teachers, and that they communicate to us the spirit of the plant, animal, or mineral from which they are made. We have lessons to learn from our sisters, the rocks, and the creatures, who share with us, this beautiful blue-green planet.
As we age, our bodies undergo a natural transition know as menopause. Menopause can be a challenging time, both physically and emotionally, as the body goes through various changes. For many women, menopause symptoms can be debilitating, affecting their quality of life. Homeopathy is a natural, gentle, and safe way to alleviate menopause symptoms without the harmful side effects of conventional medicines. Symptoms of the menopause can range from mild to severe and can last for several years. Most common symptoms include hot flushes, night sweats, mood swings, irritability, insomnia, vaginal dryness and decreased libido. Homeopathy can be effective in alleviating these symptoms and improve overall well-being during menopause. Homeopathic remedies are made from natural substances such as plants, minerals and animal products, which are diluted and potentized to make them safe and effective. Remedies are prescribed based on a person’s individual symptoms and overall health, rather, that one-size-fits-all approach, making them highly personalized form of treatment. Some commonly used homeopathic remedies for menopause are:
- Sepia: This remedy is useful for women who experience hot flushes and night sweats, along with mood swings, irritability and a decreases libido.
- Lachesis: Is helpful for women who experience hot flushes, night sweats and mood swings with a tendency to feel worse in warm weather and after sleep.
The majority of women don’t seek medical help, nor see the time as a medical problem. They take onboard “that not being well” during the menopause as being a normal part of the end of fertility. Medical profession over the centuries has successfully promoted menopause as “disease”, the beginning of the end. Women are born, bonding, affiliating, growing-up, menarching, conjugating, parenting, being orphaned, menopausing, growing older, growing bolder and dying all as a natural developing process!! Sadly, our voices have not been listened to until recently. By speaking to other women and experiencing first hand, it is important that we do listen to each other, we are the experts by our own experiences, some lucky women sail through the menopause with little or no symptoms. Did you know as a female embryo of 5months our ovaries contain from six to seven million immature egg follicles. No new follicles are ever formed, in fact this number declines to two million by the time we are born. Only 300-500 of these ever develop into mature eggs.
Retracing our steps
Once when you were strong.
You walked tall, full of joy,
and ran wild in the wind,
It is hard to remember but
you must try, recollect, recall,
trace your steps.
Your voice was loud
your knowledge belonged
your bones were strong
your spirit was powerful.
It is hard to remember
but you must try, recollect,
recall, retrace your steps.
(by author Monique Wittig)
Anthropologists believe that modern human “culture” took a huge turn about 35,000 years ago when Homo erectus became Homo sapiens, and when Paleo-Indians reached Europe from crossing the land bridge from east to west. Many thousand years before this however, fire, the ultimate tool, was tamed by women, to warm their young. Women developed the alchemy of cooking and turning seed into bread. They turned clay in the earth into pots and shaped them like their own beautiful bellies. Having a culture meant that there had to be someone who could pass it on to the next generation. Someone free from child-rearing, strong and wise. As well as older women there have always been women in human cultures who do not wish to marry or reproduce, who would have also been protectors, innovators and discoverers. By trial and error, our fore-mothers established the foods that sustained health, what plants to collect, when, how, where. Plants to eat, how to cook them and how to heal with them.
Older women were held in high esteem as they held the knowledge that was needed to keep the clan safe, they knew the secrets of plants that could safely bring forth life, that could bring life to an end and that could reveal divinity.
The menopause is a biological phenomenon unique to our species.
An ancient cave was discovered where a rock fall had killed 2 women and a baby. Later when soil samples were analyzed by a paleobotanist, pollens of plants were found that could not have been there accidentally. It appeared they had been collected and brought to the cave in a rough basket. A moment frozen in time. The pollens identified were of eight species of flowers (two unidentifiable) which could only have been purposefully gathered for healing. The list led me to believe that a grandmother was helping and bringing help to the younger woman and her newborn. The plants were appropriate for the situation and it show me beyond doubt that these women knew about plant medicine. I list the plants below as I feel they are important and significant ia a piece on menopause.
- Senecio Aureus – Life root
- Achillea Millefolium – Yarrow
- Althaea Rosea – Hollyhock
- Ephedra Vulgaris – Desert Tea
- Centaurea Solstitial – St Barnaby’s Thistle
- Muscari Atlanticum – Grape Hyacinth
Senecio Aureus – Life root.
This family of plants is a very prolific survivor, a wilding, found in many a garden, along roadsides and between cracks. It is in the composite family whose sisters are wound healers especially of gangrenous and hemorrhage wounds. It heals deep infections of the womb and urinary tract. Herbily it could be used as a womb irritant that would either cause a miscarriage or prevent conception. It can eliminate severe menstrual pain, nausea and cure anemia, sooth nerves, moderate emotional swings. Senecio is a remedy that would help after childbirth where there is heavy bleeding, womb infection, exhaustion and coldness. It has many more uses and a full assessment with a Homeopath would be required to take in a patients’ full range of symptoms as with the following finds.
Achillea Millefolium – Yarrow
The second flower pollen found in the cave was what we call Yarrow, it grows everywhere in the world, a persistent weed. Millefolium as known in Homeopathy terms, a plant that survives and adapts proving its strength of spirit.
Herbily Yarrow is the wound healer, staunches blood, anti- hemorrhagic, eases allergies, bruises, it eliminates uric uric-acid in arthritis and is a urinary herb.
Althaea Rosea – Hollyhock
Hollyhock is commonly called the Rose of the Goddess. Good for sore throats, toothache and inflammations. Deep blue when dried and used for dying weaving wool. In herbal tradition the plant was know to prevent miscarriage, relieve cystitis. In its cultivated form still graces cottage gardens and herbaceous borders.
Ephedra Vulgaris – Desert Tea
Desert tea is a diuretic, a tonic, a sympathetic nerve stimulant resembling adrenaline, a blood purifier and a fever reducer. A closely related plant is Ma Huang used in China for fevers and headaches. It contains the alkaloid ephedrine, used for cold headaches and hay fever. Homeopathically it is a heart tonic, releaser of retained urine, and an energizer.
Centaurea Solstitial – St Barnaby’s Thistle
St Barnaby’s Thistle or Yellow Star Thistle is related to the Cornflower. Our closest remedy is Carduus Benedictus which is a composite like Arnica and Bellis. It too is used herbily for wounds and fever, liver and gallbladder ailments. It is related to Carduus marianus a remedy with symptoms like rheumatism, fevers, varicose veins and liver affections. It is related to Bryonia.
Muscari Atlanticum/Racemosum – Grape Hyacinth
Could not find a homeopathic reference for this plant but herbily it is a diuretic with stimulant properties. The bulb contains Saponin which can be a tonic or a diaphoretic (sweat promoting), and could be used as a cleanser.
The archeological find was extraordinary, in finding the remnants of these x6 plants it tells us how much in tune with their surroundings these people were, we had perceived them as being without culture or at least not very advanced. However, the woman who gathered these plants in preparation for the forthcoming birth chose well with foreknowledge of how to heal and preserve life.
Homeopathy can shout loudly for those who are able to hear.
Includes extracts from ‘Women Ripening through the Menopause by Melissa Addilem MNCHM RSHom FBIH
