Cupping guides
Perimenopause: the symptoms that come first (irregular periods, sleep, mood, palpitations, joint pain), at what age it starts, how to know you are there without hormone tests, what helps, and cupping for sleep, stress, swelling and ache
You are 44 and suddenly sleep badly, wake at four with palpitations, get PMS worse than in your teens, your period comes when it likes, your joints ache in the morning and you don't recognise your mood. The blood tests are normal and the doctor says you are too young for menopause. This is perimenopause, the two to ten years before the last period when the ovaries' hormone production starts to swing, and it begins on average at 45 but often already at 40. It is the phase that gives the most symptoms and the least understanding, since periods still come, hormone tests say nothing (the levels swing from day to day) and the symptoms are confused with stress, depression, thyroid and ordinary ageing. Here is what happens in the body, the early symptoms in order, how to know you are in perimenopause without tests, what separates it from what resembles it, what helps (sleep, training, alcohol, hormone therapy which is now recommended earlier, local oestrogen, CBT), and how cupping and lymphatic massage relieve what is most tangible: the sleep, the stress, the swelling, the joint pain and the tension in neck and back.
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PMS and PMDD: the symptoms in body and mood, why it happens (hormone sensitivity, not hormone levels), how to tell PMS from PMDD, what helps according to research, a symptom calendar, and lymphatic massage and cupping the week before your period
The week before your period you are a different person: swollen, tender breasts, bloated, tired, irritable, low or anxious, with sugar cravings, headache and lower back pain, and then, the day the period comes, it is as if blown away. That is PMS, premenstrual syndrome, and three in four who menstruate recognise some of it. In about one in twenty the mood symptoms are so severe that they knock out work, relationships and daily life for one to two weeks every month: that is PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which is a diagnosis in its own right with its own treatment. The cause is not too much or too little hormone but an unusually strong sensitivity in the brain to the normal hormone fluctuations after ovulation. Here are the symptoms, how to tell PMS from PMDD and from depression and thyroid disorder, why a symptom calendar over two months is the most important thing you can do, what actually helps (exercise, sleep, calcium, diet, CBT, SSRIs if needed, the pill for some), what doesn't help, and how lymphatic massage and cupping reduce the swelling, breast tension, back pain and muscle tension on those days.
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Spots and adult acne: why you get spots as an adult (hormones, stress, skincare, diet, PCOS), the types and what they mean, what helps over the counter and on prescription, what makes it worse, a routine, how to avoid scars, and when face cupping is okay
You are 35 and still get spots, or you only got them now. Adult acne is much more common than people think: one in four women between 25 and 45 has recurring spots, most often along the jawline and chin, worst the week before a period, and often without having had much acne as a teenager. In men, acne on the back and chest and spots after shaving are more common. The causes differ from the teenage years: hormone fluctuations, stress and cortisol, the wrong skincare (too much, too strong, too rich), shaving and beard growth, masks and phones against the skin, certain medicines and in some cases PCOS. And adult skin is thinner and heals more slowly, so the acne regime you remember from your teens burns more than it helps. Here is why you get spots, what the different types mean (blackhead, papule, pustule, cyst), what actually helps according to studies, what makes it worse, a routine that works, how to avoid scars and pigment marks, and honestly about face cupping: when it is okay, when it should wait, and why you never cup over an active spot.
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