PAINFUL IRREGULAR MENSES CURED WITH HOMEOPATHIC SULPHUR
Painful menstruation affects affects up to 50% of menstruating women and for some ten percent the discomfort is extreme. Doctors call painful menses dysmenorrhea and there are two types: Primary dysmenorrhea means there is no obvious pelvic pathology and Secondary dysmenorrhea means there is pelvic pathology such as endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease and others.
NAID’s (Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs) are used to lessen the pain but do not cure the problem. With the correct homeopathic medicine it is possible to completely cure dysmenorrhea. The following case is exceptional in that one homeopathic medicine given one time in August, 1999, brought on normal periods that have remained so until the present—ten years later!
This 41 year old woman was having irregular and painful periods for some years. Interestingly, the first thing she mentioned was that her upper lip swelled “hugely” the day before her menses and lasted until day two of the menses. The lip did not swell with every period but did so two to three times a year.
The menses were difficult. A few hours before they started she would feel sick with nausea and, occasionally, vomiting that lasted three hours. She also mentioned feeling irritable and impatient for five days before the menses. All these symptoms stopped with the onset of the flow.
During the period she had intense sweats soaking her clothes. There were painful cramps and she said, “My whole body feels hot during this time.”
For a week following the period she retained fluid.
For the last two years she had been having two to three hot flashes a day.
She mentioned she had an anaphylactic reaction to tetracycline ten years ago. Anaphylaxis is a severe, systemic, allergic reaction with hives, a drop in blood pressure and swelling of the airways making it difficult to breathe. It sometimes results in death.
A vivacious woman, she was full of life and had a successful business. She was extroverted and sociable. “If I walk into a roomful of people,” she said, “I’ll meet as many people as possible.” She thought of herself as responsible and expected others to be the same. She was kind and generous. “I do things for others,” she said. Since childhood she loved art. “My favorite class was art class,” she said. “And today I am a successful esthetician.”
She had practiced Transcendental Meditation for years and later got into Scientology.
I asked about her confidence. “It’s high,” she said. “I’d rate my coping skills ten out of ten.”
In general, her body tended to be warm.
Because she was sociable, artistic, vivacious and benevolent, I considered Sulphur. People needing Sulphur are often high-energy, good-natured with good self-confidence. The homeopathic literature notes that Sulphur types have a philosophical bent which she certainly did as evidenced by her practice of meditation and Scientology. They also tend to be hot. The fact that she had had a bad reaction to an antibiotic also figured in the prescription for Sulphur.
After giving a single dose of Sulphur I did not see her for seven weeks. At that time, she reported that she had had two periods and in neither had the upper lip swelled. Nor had she had nausea and vomiting or sweating with the periods and the cramping had been quite mild. Asked about the body heat, she said, “It was not noticeable.”
I did not see her again for ten years when I bumped in to her. She said her menses had remained normal the whole time. The swelling of the upper lip appeared less and less often and finally disappeared about five years ago.
Every woman with dysmenorrhea will have some symptoms in common such as painful cramping but mostly their symptoms will differ. Her unusual body heat was distinctive as was her vivacious, extroverted, benevolent nature and it was these symptoms that pointed to Sulphur—not simply the crampy menstrual pains. Other women with dysmenorrhea will need different homeopathic medicines as each will have characteristic, distinctive qualities unique to them. ALWAYS, IN HOMEOPATHY, WE INDIVIDUALIZE, PAYING ATTENTION TO THOSE CHARACTERISTICS THAT DISTINGUISH ONE PERSON FROM ANOTHER.