Embody Guide to Massage

What is it?

Abdominal-Sacral Massage brings together many healing techniques to address common female complaints such as painful/irregular periods, ovulation problems, lower back pain, bloating, constipation and cystitis.

It works by bringing the organs of the lower abdomen back into alignment, releasing pressure in the pelvic area, and strengthening the surrounding muscles and ligaments.

 This improves blood flow and nerve and lymph functioning, and helps to alleviate chronic conditions such as fibroids, prolapse and PMS.

What are the most common symptoms that are relieved by this treatment?

The more common complaints addressed by this technique include:

A little bit about your uterus and how this massage can help

The uterus is a pear-shaped muscular organ primarily designed for childbearing. A baby is carried and nourished in the uterus as it grows from a tiny collection of cells to a full-term foetus ready to emerge into the world as a healthy newborn. In its non-pregnant state, a typical uterus is approximately 2¹/₂ to 3¹/₂ in. long and 1¹/₂ in. at its widest point. To accommodate a growing baby, the uterus is capable of enormous expansion. During pregnancy, its weight increases from about 3 ounces to 20 pounds (incl. the baby) and its capacity increases more than 4000 times. A truly amazing part of every woman's body. As special as this organ is, it can also be a pain - literally - uterine muscles contract, during menstruation, labour and orgasm (that's the nice one!).

The uterus is suspended in the pelvic cavity by various ligaments, though its position varies from woman to woman. In most women, the uterus faces forward and rests on top of the bladder when a woman is standing. However, in about 20% of women, the uterus faces backwards. A uterus in this position is also referred to as a retroverted uterus, tilted uterus or tipped uterus. Most women with a tipped uterus don't experience any symptoms. But in some women a tipped uterus causes problems including pain during intercourse or during their periods.

Within the bony pelvis, organs are supported and allowed to move by the muscles and ligaments that surround them. Muscles and ligaments that are over-contracted can cause pain and pull bones and organs out of place. Often, these displacements are subtle and only apparent to an experienced practitioner.

Subtle changes happen to all of us as we grow and the relationship between our bones and muscles becomes fixed in the way that gives us each our individual posture. Often, we become set in slightly imperfect ways. For example, over-contracted muscles in the lower back can cause the hips to rotate slightly. This in turn can cause the uterus to tilt left or right, towards the back or more towards the front. Quite often, injuries cause us to protect a painful area leading to a permanent change in the way we hold our bones and muscles. Also, a childhood accident, even something as simple as falling off a wall, may cause unnoticed scar tissue to form in the pelvic area, restricting the movement of muscles and ligaments that link the back and front of the pelvis and the organs it contains.

The organs of the pelvic cavity, the uterus, the bladder, and the rectum, all fold against each other, so that the wrong positioning of one can easily affect the others, and the blood supply, nerves and lymphatic tissues that link and surround them. This leads to what is commonly called “congestion in the pelvis”. 

In addition, if the sacrum (the base of the spine) is badly aligned, the important nerves that leave it, including those that enter the uterus, can be compromised.

What's the normal position for a uterus?

Orthodox medicine accepts quite wide variations in the position of the uterus as “normal”, and sees any effects as “something to put up with” unless they are a symptom of another even more severe underlying medical problem.  Where the effects include severe pain or discomfort, some treatment may be suggested, but these are often invasive or designed to deal with the discomfort rather than the underlying problem.  Perhaps it is not surprising that as the problem of a misaligned uterus is not recognised until it is severe, the treatment tends to be severe too.

The two conditions most usually seen as needing medical intervention are prolapse and severe retroversion (backward-tilting) of the uterus.

Abdominal-Sacral Massage can help both of these conditions, the symptoms with which they are commonly associated include

painful periods
pain during intercourse
constipation
incontinence
cystitis

Abdominal-Sacral Massage can help to alleviate lower back pain and other problems associated with the muscles around the lower part of the spine.

It may also help to create optimum conditions for fertility.

A uterine Prolapse takes place when the muscles supporting the uterus become so weak that the uterus cannot stay in place, so that it slips down from its normal position. The official UK NHS-Direct website says “If your prolapse is mild to moderate and not causing any pain or discomfort, you won't need treatment.” http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=299&sectionId=11

For severe cases, suggested treatments include use of one or more plastic support pessaries, various forms of surgery up to and including hysterectomy, and hormone replacement therapy (for menopausal women). http://www.womenshealthlondon.org.uk/leaflets/prolapse/prolapse.html 

A retroverted uterus is the name given to a uterus that is tilted backwards inside of the pelvis, and is sometimes known as a “tilted” or “tipped” uterus. Normally, women are born with a uterus that is located in a straight up and down position inside of the pelvis or with a uterus that tips slightly forwards, towards the stomach and over the bladder.  As we mature, the uterus usually takes on this tipped forward position. About a quarter of all women have a uterus that tilts backwards, pointing towards the rectum and the spine.  

Orthodox medicine suggests that for most women with tilted uteruses the causes are completely genetic, and it is not by itself a problem. It would be difficult to do research which would show the difference between women being born with a tipped uterus or developing one as they grow up through the interaction of our bones and muscles. For orthodox medicine, both these causes are equally “natural”. As a result, orthodox medicine concentrates on more dramatic factors that can cause a uterus that is in a “normal” placement to become retroverted. These causes include weakening of the ligaments as a result of the stretching during pregnancy or the fall in oestrogen levels following menopause, and internal scar tissue formation due to other conditions such as endometriosis or pelvic inflammatory disease.

The two most commonly-occurring symptoms include pain during intercourse and period pain, the result of pressure that the retroverted uterus places on the rectum and the ligaments around the coccyx (“tailbone”). Rarer symptoms associated with a retroverted uterus include lower back pain, increased frequency of urinary tract infections such as cystitis, incontinence and fertility difficulties.

There is also some recent scientific evidence that a retroverted uterus may indicate a greatly increased likelihood of suffering prolapse later in life. In the study, 69% of grade 2-4 prolapses involved a retroverted uterus, 4.5 times more than a forward-tipped one. ( Bernard Haylen, International Urogynecology Journal, Volume 17, Number 6, November 2006 , pp. 555-558).

For mild cases, no treatment is suggested beyond eating a high fibre diet and avoiding heavy lifting. The pelvic floor exercises (Kegel exercises) that many women use during pregnancy are suggested, but not any exercises to strengthen the supporting ligaments. Abdominal-Sacral Massage operates in this area to strengthen the uterine area as a whole, including a simple self-help massage regime that can be used to supplement pelvic floor exercises.

Heavy menstrual bleeding is a condition that is distressing for many women, but in the UK doctors can find no explanation at all for half of all the cases that they see. As with a misaligned uterus, orthodox medicine concentrates on those cases where there is an easily identifiable cause such as use of a contraceptive coil or other pelvic disorders such as fibroids, polyps, pelvic inflammatory disease and endometriosis. http://www.womenshealthlondon.org.uk/leaflets/bleeding/bleeding.html

By realigning the uterus properly, including a simple self-help massage regime that can be used to improve the muscle tone of the uterine area as a whole, Abdominal-Sacral Massage can improve blood flow throughout the area and stimulate a more normal monthly cycle, especially in those 50% of cases where doctors can find no apparent cause.

Fibroids are benign tumours that grow in various location on and within the uterine wall or cavity. Many women do not have symptoms especially if they are just under the surface of the uterine wall; however, if the fibroid is in the uterine lining, this can cause heavy or irregular bleeding. General orthodox treatment is to recommend a hysterectomy if a women no longer wishes to have children, in fact it is the No.1 surgical operation performed. A practitioner of the Abdominal-Sacral Massage will offer support and advice on diet and lifestyle changes to help minimise further growth and the simple self-help massage regime will aid decongestion of the pelvic area.

Caroline Myss teaches that fibroids represent our creativity that was never expressed, including fantasy images of ourselves that have never seen the light of day and creative secrets of our other selves. Fibroids also result when we are flowing life energy into dead end jobs or relationships.

Dr Christiane Northrup writes in her book Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom "Another issue that affects a woman's pelvic organs is competition among her various needs. When her innermost needs for companionship and emotional support are in competition with her outer needs for success, autonomy and tribal approval, this situation may manifest in her inner pelvic organs, the ovaries and uterus. Our culture teaches us that we can't be both emotionally fulfilled and financially successful, and that our needs for them both are mutually exclusive; that as women, we can't have it all." A practitioner of the Abdominal-Sacral Massage will offer support and empowerment and encourage nurturing and fulfilment of a woman's needs.