Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner Master Ruth Lee and women’s healthcare doctor Zara Chan discuss the conditions they are increasingly treating in women, how western medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine can complement each other, and the changes they want to see in the women's health space
Master Ruth Lee’s pivot to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) more than a decade ago came after 20 years in the advertising and marketing industry. The long hours and intensive lifestyle had started to take their toll and Lee was looking to make some changes. She found that TCM appealed. “It was because of its preventative approach; it [shouldn’t be] that you start to take care of yourself only when you have sickness or disease.”
Having studied TCM in Beijing, Lee now runs her own practice, Master Ruth TCM Clinic, in Hong Kong, with a focus on women’s health. She gets involved at all stages of a woman’s life, from first menstrual cycle to menopause and beyond, while specialising in fertility and IVF support, pre- and postnatal care, as well as offering facial acupuncture.
Dr Zara Chan is a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology at Hong Kong’s OT&P clinic, and treats women at similar stages to Lee, with a focus on pre- and postnatal care and treating women as they approach and experience menopause, at which point she is seeing an increasing number of women suffering from hormonal imbalances.
For Chan, treatment for such hormonal disturbances can vary but she will often encourage women to visit a TCM practitioner, as acupuncture, medication and physical therapies can all help. She says that these treatments also “make the person’s body more sensitive to whatever I give them, which is good because it means I don’t have to give as high doses. Sometimes it could mean that instead of giving full-fledged hormone therapy, I can start them on certain types of hormonal supplements,” a gentler beginning to hormonal treatment.
It [shouldn’t be] that you start to take care of yourself only when you have sickness or disease
There are other points in a woman’s life when Chan sees that TCM is beneficial. When women start planning to have children, she will often suggest TCM therapies for cycle regulation rather than using oral hormones, as she has seen that acupuncture and acupressure can have a positive impact. When women are pregnant, Chan might also propose TCM to address certain aches and pains, while acupuncture can solve a persistent breach.
Lee appreciates being able to use TCM therapies to complement western treatments. But a shift that she would like to see is towards a more preventative health approach. “I think this is one of the great advantages of Chinese medicine. We see the individual as a unique body, and we treat it with a personalised approach. It helps to lay a good foundation for prevention. For example, if you have period pain, it could be because of your body constitution. We can understand different body constitutions, so people have an awareness and respect their body’s differences; then you have a preventative approach. We can do a lot of things to help you better manage your health.
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“TCM approaches are already used in a lot of public health issues, such as high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. In women’s health we want to do a lot more to help people understand that you can actually take a preventative approach instead of just a problem-solving approach.” She believes that such an approach from early on could help prevent some of the more prevalent conditions she is increasingly seeing in women, which include menstrual issues, fibroids and infertility, aside from a corresponding jump in mental health conditions.