Other reasons women come to us

Beyond fertility, pregnancy and menopause, women come to us at all sorts of points in their lives — often while they are already under the care of a GP, a gynaecologist or a hospital team. This page is mostly about how we work with that care, and about the times we will send you back to it.

Complementary, never alternative

Cancer Research UK draws the distinction well: a complementary therapy is used alongside conventional medical treatment, while an alternative therapy is used instead of it. We are firmly the first, and we have no interest in being the second.

In practice that means we will not advise you on your medication, offer a second opinion on what your consultant has told you, or suggest that anything we do could take the place of treatment you have been offered. If you ever get the impression otherwise from anyone in this field, be careful.

If you already have a diagnosis

Bring what you have — letters, scan reports, blood results, and the name of whoever is looking after you. Dr Zhang trained in Western medicine and worked for seven years in hospital obstetrics and gynaecology, so she reads these as a doctor reads them. If something in your notes has never been explained to you properly, ask her; if something needs your consultant rather than her, she will say so.

Knowing what you are being treated for and what you are taking is not curiosity. It changes what is appropriate here, and occasionally it means she will decline to treat until she has spoken to you about something.

If you are having treatment for cancer

Some of the women who come to us are going through cancer treatment, or have finished it. They generally describe wanting an unhurried hour in a quiet room during a period when a great deal is being done to them and very little of it is restful. That is what we offer, and we are careful not to describe it as anything more.

There are real practical considerations, and we would rather set them out than have you find out at the door:

• Your oncology team needs to know. Please tell them you are coming, and tell us who they are. If they would rather you did not have treatment at a particular point in your cycle, we follow their lead without argument.
• Blood counts matter. Chemotherapy can lower platelets and white cells, and when it does, needling may not be appropriate. Your team monitors this; we will ask, and we may wait.
• Lymph node surgery or lymphoedema means we avoid needling the affected arm or leg altogether.
• We keep away from skin affected by radiotherapy, from the site of a tumour or surgery, and from the area around a port or line.
• Fatigue is real and sessions are adapted for it — shorter if you need, positioned however is comfortable, and timed around the days in your cycle when you feel most able.
• Chinese herbal medicine is a different matter. Herbs can interact with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatments such as tamoxifen. Many oncology teams prefer patients not to take them during treatment, and that is a reasonable position. We will not prescribe herbs during cancer treatment without your team’s knowledge.

Cancer Research UK has careful, balanced information about complementary therapies in cancer care, including how to check a therapist’s training and why interactions with conventional treatment matter: cancerresearchuk.org. It is worth reading before you commit to anything, here or anywhere.

If you are in pain

Pain is one of the more common reasons women come to us. We are not able to tell you whether treatment here would make a difference to yours, and we would rather say so plainly than let you assume it will.

Pain that is new, severe, persistent or unexplained needs a diagnosis first, so please start with your GP — pain is information, and the priority is finding out what it is telling you. We are glad to work alongside whatever they advise.

What a session is like

The full description is on the acupuncture page — what the needles are like, what you will feel, what to wear. In short: an unhurried consultation, then very fine sterile needles at chosen points while you rest for twenty minutes or so, lights low. Tell us if you are uncomfortable, too warm, or need to stop. Most people find the time restful.

A first visit begins with a proper consultation — your history, your current medical care, and a Traditional Chinese Medicine assessment (see how Chinese medicine works). From there we agree what, if anything, is worth doing.

What we can and cannot tell you

We are not able to tell you that acupuncture or Chinese herbal medicine will treat, relieve or improve any condition you have been diagnosed with, or ease the side effects of any treatment you are having. The evidence needed to say that is not something we hold, and this is precisely the area where nobody should be stretching what they know.

What we can describe is the treatment itself, the care and attention you will get, and how women generally find the experience of coming here. We review at every visit, and if you are not getting anything out of it we will tell you rather than keep booking you in — which matters all the more if you are already spending your energy on something harder.