A Personal Health Experience

In April of 2003 I learned that we would be losing our health insurance, so I went to the Gynecologist to have an IUD removed before I had to pay full price to have it done. (No lectures, here, please.) I had not been for several years, and no, I do not believe in mammograms. More and more studies are ruling out the risk/benefit ratio to anything other that medical profit. Anyway, I was told at the time that I had a mass larger than an egg on the uterus, which they assumed was probably a fibroid tumor but wanted to check to rule out anything else.

Since that was at 3:00 in the afternoon on the last day of my insurance, and since I would not have sought orthodox care if they said it had been anyway, no further testing took place. The doctor also said if it was a fibroid, it would shrink as I went into menopause and my estrogen levels dropped. (I was 44 at the time.)

I was not surprised at the diagnosis, since I had noticed that my uterus was significantly enlarged and had attributed it to inflammation caused by the IUD. It also explained some other minor pelvic symptoms I’d been having and a “gut feeling” that I needed to do some major detox work.

When I tested myself for herbs I was surprised to find that I needed large amounts of black cohosh, since it is generally considered to be an estrogenic herb and therefore contraindicated from the physicians perspective. I eventually found that my herbal needs shifted throughout my cycle, essentially magnifying each phase. I moved from black cohosh to “Flashease”, a combination of black cohosh and dong quai; that cycled to Donq Quai alone, then dong quai and wild yam, then wild yam alone and back to black cohosh. I tested for all in rather large amounts, which gave me my first experience with severe PMS! Since the body’s normal function is to eliminate nonessential matter, the exaggerated cycle did that at a more dramatic level, removing the excess tissue.

In addition to the supplements I was taking, I dropped my protein intake further, was more conscious of my water intake and added some complementary therapies, including coffee enemas and castor oil packs. Within three weeks there was a noticeable reduction in the size of the mass; within three months it was undetectable. Best of all, because of my experiences with natural medicine and the marvel of the human body, we did not face the panic too often generated by the disclosure of an unknown mass, the crisis of testing , and the experimentation of treatment with potentially dangerous substances.

Knowing how to muscle test allowed me to find exactly the right approach to my condition. Although one would predict that black cohosh would enlarge a tumor that would normally reduce proportionate to decreasing estrogen levels, my body used it to facilitate it’s removal. That is the beauty of herbs. As targeted foods, they support the body in it’s effort to normalize function, rather than manipulating or altering it. We don’t need to treat diseases, we just need to treat the body with proper respect. It was designed to make up the difference.