What is the core of women’s health?

I have been on the frontline of women's health education for almost 8 years, and I have been asked this question countless times. The answer I gave is a full-cycle physical and mental balance - not that there are no abnormal arrows on the physical examination report, which means you are healthy, nor that just focusing on replenishing qi and blood, resisting aging, and regulating menstruation is called paying attention to health. It means that the needs of each stage, from physiological functions to emotional states, from adolescence to perimenopause, can be faced up to, properly taken care of, and dynamic homeostasis maintained.

There is a lot of quarrel on the Internet nowadays. Some people say that the core of women's health is emotions, and "all gynecological diseases are caused by anger." There are also clinical people who say that organic problems should be solved first before talking about anything else. Emotions are auxiliary. Both views have their own truths, and it is easy to fall into traps if you listen to either one. I met a 32-year-old Internet operator girl a while ago. Her menstrual cramps were so painful that she had to take 2 painkillers every time to cope with it. I read a blogger who said, "Dysmenorrhea is caused by liver stagnation. Just don't be angry." She had suppressed her emotions for two months, and she didn't dare to do it even if she was under great pressure. She vented her anger, but the pain became even worse. When she came for a check-up, she discovered that she had stage I endometriosis. After taking medication for half a year, the dysmenorrhea problem basically disappeared. She herself said that she always felt irritable before, but now she feels better, and her colleagues are much more pleased with her.

That’s not to say that the impact of emotions is unimportant. On the contrary, many chronic gynecological problems have the shadow of long-term emotional internal friction. A 40-year-old stay-at-home mother who was followed up last year had no change in the level 3 breast nodules for 3 years. Last year, when her child entered junior high school and her mother-in-law broke her leg, she was hospitalized. She didn’t sleep a full night for 3 months, and she didn’t even have time to complain to anyone. The test was found to be level 4a, and after minimally invasive surgery, it was found to be benign. She specifically discussed with her husband to take two afternoons a week to learn oil painting, and concentrate on painting without thinking about anything. Over the past six months, her overall condition has become more relaxed, and even the hyperplasia has been reduced a lot during the recent review.

In fact, a woman's body is really like a dynamic ecology. You can't just repair any broken part. Just like if you raise a lot of meat, just watering it is useless. The light, temperature, and even ventilation have to keep up. If you forget to turn it in the direction one day, it will grow crookedly. We have seen too many little girls who are embarrassed to complain about dysmenorrhea during adolescence and have to run 800 meters. The chronic pain of falling down takes several years to treat. ； I have also seen that during pregnancy and childbirth, the whole family is staring at the child in the belly. The mother suffered from insomnia and hair loss for half a month after giving birth, and was later discovered to have a tendency to depression. ； There are also menopausal aunts who are said to "just throw tantrums when they are idle", and wait until the problems of hot flashes, night sweats and osteoporosis become serious before they come to see a doctor. In fact, the definition of "health" is narrowed.

To put it bluntly, there is nothing mysterious about it. The core of women's health is to not treat your body as a flaw that needs to be "repaired", and don't treat your emotions as an accessory that can be suppressed at will. When you are uncomfortable, look for the reason, and when you are happy, just be happy. This dynamic state of comfort is more reliable than any standardized health list.