Women’s Health & Menstrual Health
Women’s health is complex. And sometimes, getting to the bottom of persistent symptoms takes more than a standard blood test and a ten-minute appointment.
Painful periods, heavy bleeding, PMS, hormonal acne, pelvic pain, fatigue, mood changes and irregular cycles can affect everything from work and relationships to sleep and general wellbeing.
Sometimes there’s a clear diagnosis. Other times, the results look normal, but you still don’t feel right.
At West Street Wellbeing, senior Chinese medicine practitioners Siegrid Delaney and Kate Levett bring extensive clinical experience and a holistic approach to women’s health. We take the time to listen, investigate and understand what’s happening, rather than simply treating each symptom in isolation.
| The Bigger Picture | Menstrual Health | Hormones & Testing |
| Chinese Medicine | Our Approach |
When Your Body Is Asking for Attention
Women are often exceptionally good at getting things done. Work, family, caring responsibilities, managing households, remembering everything for everyone else. Their own health can end up somewhere near the bottom of a very long list.
And while stress isn’t the explanation for every hormonal or gynaecological symptom, prolonged physical and emotional demands can influence sleep, pain sensitivity, energy, mood and menstrual symptoms.
We recognise that women don’t experience their health in isolation from the demands of their lives.
Understanding those demands is part of good clinical care, not an alternative to investigating what may be happening physiologically.
Menstrual Health & Common Concerns
Your menstrual cycle provides valuable information about your health.
Cycle length, ovulation, menstrual flow, pain and changes in mood, digestion, energy or sleep throughout the month can all help build a clearer clinical picture.
We regularly work with women experiencing:
- Painful or heavy periods
- PMS and PMDD
- Irregular or absent menstrual cycles
- Endometriosis and adenomyosis
- Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
- Fibroids and pelvic discomfort
- Hormonal acne and cyclical headaches
- Fatigue, sleep disturbances and mood changes associated with the menstrual cycle
Persistent symptoms deserve proper attention. Significant period pain, heavy bleeding or disruptive premenstrual symptoms shouldn’t simply be accepted as normal.
Looking Beyond the Standard Blood Test
Blood tests can provide useful information, but interpreting them requires context.
We review existing pathology results through a functional medicine lens, looking at relationships between markers and considering how findings fit with your symptoms, medical history, nutritional status and menstrual cycle.
Depending on your presentation, we may consider iron stores, thyroid function, blood glucose regulation, inflammatory markers, nutrient status and reproductive hormones.
Where standard investigations don’t adequately explain the clinical picture, we may discuss additional functional laboratory testing to explore particular aspects of hormonal or metabolic health in greater detail.
Not every test is useful for every person. We consider the quality of the evidence, the limitations of each test and whether the result is likely to change treatment decisions.
We work alongside your GP or specialist where medical investigations, diagnosis or additional management are needed.
The Chinese Medicine Perspective
Chinese medicine offers another way of understanding the relationships between symptoms.
Rather than looking at painful periods, digestive discomfort, headaches, poor sleep and irritability as entirely separate problems, we examine how they occur together and whether they follow a recognisable pattern.
Traditional concepts such as Qi stagnation, Blood deficiency, Blood stasis and Yin deficiency help us interpret these patterns and guide treatment.
These aren’t direct equivalents of Western medical diagnoses or blood test results. They’re part of a different clinical framework, developed through centuries of observation and refined through modern practice.
By combining Chinese medicine assessment with contemporary medical knowledge and pathology review, we can approach your health from more than one perspective.
The aim isn’t to make things more complicated. It’s to identify useful connections and develop a treatment plan that makes sense for you.
How We Approach Treatment
There is no single protocol for women’s hormonal health.
Your treatment begins with a thorough consultation, reviewing your symptoms, menstrual history, relevant investigations, medications, lifestyle and health priorities.
Depending on your needs, we may recommend:
- Acupuncture to help manage pain, muscular tension, stress-related symptoms and other concerns.
- Chinese herbal medicine, individually prescribed where appropriate.
- Targeted nutritional supplementation, informed by your history, dietary intake and relevant investigations.
- Dietary and lifestyle recommendations that are realistic within the demands of your daily life.
- Further investigation or referral when symptoms warrant additional medical assessment.
The evidence for acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine varies between conditions and outcomes. We discuss what treatment may reasonably offer, without promising results that the research doesn’t support.
Our approach is collaborative, practical and individualised. We review your progress and adjust treatment as needed.
Book Women’s Health Acupuncture
Experienced Care That Takes the Whole Picture Into Account
You don’t need to arrive with a diagnosis or know exactly what’s wrong.
Whether you’re dealing with difficult periods, a recognised gynaecological condition or a collection of symptoms that haven’t quite added up, we’re interested in understanding the bigger picture.
Siegrid Delaney and Kate Levett bring extensive experience in acupuncture and Chinese medicine, with a shared commitment to thoughtful, evidence-informed women’s health care.
We take the time to investigate, explain our findings and work with you on a practical plan.
Have questions about your symptoms, functional testing or whether our approach may be appropriate for you?