Seven Year Cycles: Women's Health in East Asian Medicine

As I sit down to write this, my oldest child is turning ten. A full decade of motherhood has unfolded—ten years of caring for this funny, curious goofball. But this milestone also invites me to reflect on the broader arc of women’s lives: my own childhood, witnessing my mother move through perimenopause and menopause, and my own journey through adolescence, fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum. Women’s health is a lifelong continuum, in which each phase requires awareness, knowledge, and care.

For hundreds of years, East Asian medicine has offered a thoughtful and structured approach to women’s health. In classical theory, a woman’s life unfolds in cycles of seven years. These cycles help practitioners understand where energy is naturally rising, stabilizing, or shifting—and where additional support may be needed.

These seven year phases do not exist in isolation. They are interwoven with daily rhythms, seasonal changes, and the monthly menstrual cycle, as well as mirroring the elemental forces embedded in the natural world. At the heart of this system are the principles of yin and yang—the dynamic, interdependent forces that govern growth, rest, warmth, cooling, activity, and restoration. Health is understood as balance within movement and inevitable change and growth.

Childhood and Early Menarche (around age 7–13)
In late childhood and the years surrounding first menstruation, the body is building foundational energy. Relating to the qualities of the wood element and supporting vibrant yang energy—warmth, movement, vitality—is essential. Attention is also given to recurring childhood illnesses or constitutional weaknesses that may influence future menstrual or reproductive health. Early education around the menstrual cycle fosters awareness and body literacy from the start.

Adolescence and Young Adulthood (around age 14–21 and beyond)
The menstrual cycle becomes an important indicator of overall health. The fire element is prominent at this time, offering unique potency for heart connections (and intensity!) and outward expansion. Cycle length, flow quality, colour, emotional patterns, cramping, and energy shifts all offer insight into hormonal balance and circulation. Rather than dismissing irregular or painful periods as a variation of “normal,” East Asian medicine views them as messages from the body—opportunities for early support and long-term prevention.

Fertility, Pregnancy, and Postpartum Years (21-27 and 28-34)
As women move into their reproductive years, care expands to include preconception health, nervous system regulation, digestion, sleep, and emotional well-being. Focusing on the earth element, a strong foundation before pregnancy supports both mother and baby. Postpartum care is especially emphasized—rest, nourishment, and rebuilding energy are seen as instrumental for this time. How a woman is supported during this time can influence her health for years to come.

Perimenopause and Menopause (35-41, 42-48)
These years relate to the metal element - a time of refinement, precision, creating strong boundaries and learning what can be let go. Pivoting focus to the self, support in this phase can address sleep disruption, temperature fluctuations, mood changes, and fatigue. Rather than viewing menopause as decline, this perspective honours it as a natural transition into a new phase of strength and wisdom.

The Second Spring (55+)

In later cycles, attention turns to the water element - the energetic root of vitality, aging, and resilience. Once through the last significant hormonal transition, women are able to establish themselves in a new era of understanding, strength and independence. This is the time where they can step into their power and vitality, nourishing themselves with the perspective of learned experience. Maintaining physical and cognitive prowess provides agility and balance for the years to come.

Across every stage, women’s health is cyclical, relational, and deeply personal. By recognizing predictable patterns of change—and responding with thoughtful, individualized care—we create space for women to be informed, supported, and empowered.

When we understand health as rhythmic rather than linear, we can ask with compassionate curiosity: What does this stage require? What kind of support is needed now?

Honoring these cycles is not just about symptom management—it is about cultivating resilience, fortitude, and radiance across a lifetime.

Navigating Mental Health with East Asian Medicine

Increasingly over the last five years, many people have arrived to their acupuncture session feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, anxious, or disconnected from themselves, knowing that their nervous system has been under sustained pressure for too long. As we continue to navigate an unprecedented era of collective stress, uncertainty, and change, more people are noticing how deeply their inner state shapes their energy, resilience, sleep, digestion, immunity, and hormonal systems.

While this awareness may feel new with an increase in research and collective understanding, East Asian Medicine has understood the mind–body relationship for thousands of years. This medicine recognizes that our emotional life is expressed through our physiology—our nervous system, hormones, immune response, and organ function. Recent biomedical research now mirrors this understanding, showing that chronic stress and anxiety can dysregulate the autonomic nervous system, elevate inflammatory markers, disrupt sleep and digestion, and contribute to conditions such as depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and fatigue.

Through modalities such as acupuncture, cupping, gua sha, herbal and nutritional therapies, and meditative movement practices like tai qi and qi gong, East Asian Medicine works directly with these systems. Research suggests that acupuncture can influence the autonomic nervous system by increasing parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) activity, improving heart rate variability, and reducing physiological markers of stress. Many people experience this as a return to feeling more grounded, present, and capable of meeting daily life with greater ease and support.

Similarly, tai qi and qi gong have been shown in clinical studies to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress while improving balance, circulation, and emotional regulation. These practices gently retrain the body to move, breathe, and respond from a place of steadiness rather than reactivity.

At the heart of this medicine is a model that sees body and mind as integrated, dynamic forces, continually influencing one another. Mental and emotional health are not treated as secondary to physical symptoms, nor are physical symptoms dismissed as purely psychological. Instead, we look at the whole person: their history, constitution, current stressors, and the ways their system has adapted to survive and cope with the challenges life presents to us.

Life experiences, trauma, genetics, and constitution all shape how stress is held in the body and how symptoms emerge. Because of this, treatment is completely unique. Each protocol is tailored to support the individual nervous system, restore balance gradually, and help the body remember its innate capacity for regulation, healing, and resilience.

For many clients, this work becomes not only about symptom relief, but about reconnecting to themselves—cultivating a steadier sense of calm, emotional clarity, and compassion for themselves, and those around them. It is a process of learning to listen to the body again, to respond rather than react, and to move through the world with greater presence and support.

Fall Transitions

The light is changing, and the air is a bit crisper. Apples and pears are piled high at the markets and the kids are freshly back to school. This is a natural time to reassess routines, and adding in supports can help smooth our transition to autumn.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Fall relates the metal element and the Lungs and Large Intestine organs. It connects us to the feelings of sadness and grief, as the long summer days grow further behind us, and the deep grounding of winter is ahead. 

To support the Lungs, spending time in breathwork and meditation allows our bodies to attune inward, and gives us an opportunity to mindfully process and let go of outdated beliefs, routines, or attachments. 

Prioritizing sleep, moderate activity, and dressing warmly by covering heads and necks will help keep our immune system strong. Adding in fibre-rich foods (seasonal and cooked fruits and vegetables), as well as pungent flavoured foods, such as onions, garlic, ginger, radish, turnips are beneficial.

Bringing balance this fall can be making time to finish projects before winter sets in, enjoying a hot cup of tea under a cozy blanket, or savouring a deep breath in a forest of changing leaves. Above all, please take gentle care, nourishing yourself and your loved ones around you.