Period pain or dysmenorrhoea is a very common complaint that refers to painful menstrual cramps in abdomen. Primary dysmenorrhoea refers to pain of an unknown cause (i.e. no medical condition is identified). Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or the contraceptive pill have been used for treatment but more women are looking for non-drug therapies.

Nearly half of all adolescent girls and women of reproductive age report suffering period pain or other symptoms of discomfort. Period pain in Western society is often considered normal, but Chinese Medicine practitioners acknowledge that it is common but defiantly not normal. And while Western medicine usually does not find an underlying medical problem they know it has a significant impact on women’s lives, with many sufferers missing either school or work due to severe menstrual pain.

A study published in the Cochrane review (October 2007) involved nearly 3,500 women in several countries. It suggests that Chinese herbs are more effective in relieving menstrual cramps than drugs, acupuncture or heat compression.

Australia-based researchers said herbs not only relieved pain, but reduced the recurrence of the condition over three months, according to the Cochrane Library journal. "All available measures of effectiveness confirmed the overall superiority of Chinese herbal medicine to placebo, no treatment, NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), OCPs (oral contraceptive pill), acupuncture and heat compression," said lead author Xiaoshu Zhu from the Centre for Complementary Medicine Research at the University of Western Sydney.

This of course is not news to the millions of Asian women that have safely benefited from Chinese herbs over the centuries, nor to the many women who have recently turned to more natural herbal treatments in our western societies. But if you suffer period problems and have not tried TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) perhaps this study will provide the encouragement you need to seek assistance for your problem.