The Experimental Study Of Auricular Plaster Therapy In Treating Primary Dysmenorrhea In Hong Kong Sports Women

Dysmenorrhea is a common gynecological disorder, often occurs before or during menstruation. Major clinical symptom is lower abdominal spasms and the pain can spread to lower back. Other whole body manifestations can be seen like nausea, vomiting, coldness, headache, dizziness, paleness in the face, sweating, and even collapse, as a result lifestyle and work are often affected. There are two types of dysmenorrhea, primary and secondary. Secondary dysmenorrhea is presented with pelvic organ pathology. Primary dysmenorrhea i s associated with uterine smooth muscle contraction leading to pai n. Recently research studies found leukotrienes (LTs) may lead to uterine muscle contraction and decreased blood flow and therefore is related to dysmenorrhea. Studies also pointed out that uterine tissue can generate LTs and the uterus also have LT receptors which are related to the stimulation of uterine contraction leading to dysmenorrhea. To the sports related personnel, dysmenorrhea can seriously affect sports women's training and competition performance, however, sports women often avoid taking medication due to the fear of contravening the doping regulation, therefore, most of them train and compete with menstrual pain which may affect their sports performance and even cannot compete or train due to menstrual pain. Up to now, there is no data about the prevalence and treatment dysmenorrhea in Hong Kong women and sports women. Studies in China found auricular plaster therapy is an effective treatment in dysmenorrhea and it is considered as a non-invasive, simple and safe method. Therefore, auricular plaster therapy is used to treat dysmenorrhea in Hong Kong sports women.ObjectiveTo investigate the effectiveness of auricular plaster therapy in treating Hong Kong sports women with primary dysmenorrhea. To observe the effect of auricular plaster therapy on urinary LTE4and the relationship between dysmenorrhea and anxiety. Methods:Sports women with primary dysmenorrhea are selected and with reference to the "Clinical Research's Instruction Doctrine of the new Chinese Medicine"(1st edition) published in1993, twenty sports women with qi-stagnancy and blood stasis type dysmenorrhea were selected to receive auricular plaster therapy as treatment. Sports women without dysmenorrhea from the same sport groups were randomly selected to the control group. The auricular points are internal genitals, endocrine, sympathesis, liver, shemen. Seeds of cowherb were put onto plasters and stick onto the auricular points for treatment at least one week before menstruation until the first day of menstruation. Subjects were instructed to press each point15times until ear is slightly warm and distended, repeat3times a day. Treatment is completed after three menstrual cycles. Menstrual symptoms, self-rated anxiety score and urinary LTE4are evaluated. Treatment group is followed for another three cycles after completion of treatment and menstrual symptoms are recorded. Statistical analyses between and within groups are performed by SPSS (version19).ResultsTwenty Hong Kong sports women subjects with qi-stagnancy and blood stasis type primary dysmenorrhea successfully completed the auricular plaster therapy.1. Auricular plaster therapy is effective in treating qi-stagnancy and blood stasis type primary dysmenorrhea in sports women, with a total effective rate of100%. The effective rate in pain control is also100%. Menstrual cycle is also normalized.2. Morning urine LTE4is significantly higher in the dysmenorrhea group when compared with the control group. This may be related to uterine contraction leading to decreased blood flow which resulted in menstrual pain.3. The self-rated anxiety score of sports women with dysmenorrhea was also significantly higher than the control group and the score decreased after treatment which may indicate alleviation of menstrual pain leads to decreased anxiety.ConelusionAuricular plaster therapy maybe the best treatment of dysmenorrhea in sports women. It is effective and will not contravene the doping regulation, therefore, should be promoted. Using auricular plaster therapy to treat dysmenorrhea is simple, non-invasive, fast, economical, has no apparent side effect, and no need to take medication, therefore, is good for sports women.