Women’s bodies change.
Across a month. Across pregnancy. After having a baby. Through perimenopause and menopause. And across all the seasons of life in between.
Hormones are part of that story, but they’re not the whole story.
Our nervous system, movement, posture, sleep, stress, physical load and environment are all part of the same human being.
And that’s where the conversation around chiropractic and female health gets interesting.
Let’s start with the nervous system
Your nervous system is your body’s communication and coordination network.
It is constantly receiving information about what is happening both inside and outside of you , processing that information and coordinating an appropriate response.
When you move, your brain receives information.
When your environment changes, your nervous system responds.
When the physical demands placed on your body change, your body adapts.
This relationship between the spine, movement and nervous system is a big part of why we’re so interested in chiropractic.
Chiropractic care uses specific adjustments to the spine and body, with the aim of improving how the body moves and reducing areas of dysfunction or interference.
And for women, the environment our nervous system is navigating is continually changing.
A body that changes across the month
As we explored in our blog on living in sync with the cyclical nature of femininity , female physiology isn’t static.
Hormonal changes across the menstrual cycle can influence things like energy, sleep, temperature, connective tissue, pain sensitivity and exercise performance.
You might notice that your body feels different at different points in your cycle. And we think that’s worth paying attention to.
Rather than seeing the body as a machine that should perform exactly the same way every day, chiropractic gives us another opportunity to check in:
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How is your body moving right now?
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What are you noticing?
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What demands are you asking your body to adapt to?
Those are conversations we love having in practice.
Then there are the bigger seasons
Pregnancy might be one of the most obvious examples of the incredible adaptability of the female body.
As your baby grows, your centre of mass changes. The loads through your spine and pelvis change. Your breathing mechanics, movement and posture can change too. Your body is continually figuring out how to accommodate something new.
There is research exploring chiropractic and manual therapy for pregnancy-related back and pelvic pain, with some encouraging findings, although the evidence is still developing.
Then comes postpartum, often with feeding, carrying, rocking, interrupted sleep, recovery from pregnancy and birth, and eventually returning to exercise or work.
Different season. Different loads. Different body.
And later, perimenopause and menopause bring another shift in the internal environment, including changes that can affect bone, muscle, sleep and physical capacity.
Through every one of these seasons, movement and nervous system function still matter.
The bit we find really fascinating
Research into chiropractic has increasingly looked beyond simply asking “does this make something hurt less?”
Researchers have explored what happens in the nervous system following spinal manipulation including changes in sensorimotor processing, proprioception and the way the brain integrates information coming from the body.
That doesn’t give us every answer about chiropractic and female health but it gives us a pretty interesting place to keep asking questions.
If the nervous system plays such an important role in how we perceive, move through and adapt to our world, understanding how chiropractic interacts with that system matters. Especially when the world inside a woman’s body isn’t exactly the same every day.
So, chiropractic + female health?
For us, it comes back to seeing the whole person .
Not just a sore back. Not just a menstrual cycle. Not just pregnancy. Not just a nervous system.
A whole human being whose body is constantly receiving information, responding, changing and adapting.
Chiropractic can be one part of supporting women to move well, understand their bodies better and continue doing the things that matter to them through all of those different seasons. And there is still plenty left for us to learn.
Which is one of the reasons we’ll keep being curious, keep following the research and (most importantly) keep asking good questions about the person standing in front of us.
Want to explore a little further?
There is some fascinating research exploring chiropractic and nervous system function , as well as research into manual therapy and chiropractic care during pregnancy .
Chiropractic and pelvic floor function in pregnant and non-pregnant women, a preliminary study exploring changes in pelvic floor function following chiropractic care. Read the study on PubMed
Chiropractic care and migraines in females, a qualitative study on the physical impact and contributory factors of migraines on women and their experience of chiropractic treatment for migraine pain management.
Read the study on PubMed
And if you’re curious about what your body has been telling you lately, you’re always welcome to book a time with one of our chiropractors and start the conversation.
Got questions about your body?
Sometimes the best place to start is simply with a good conversation.
If you’ve been noticing changes in the way your body is moving, feeling or adapting, or you’re simply curious about what chiropractic might have to offer, we’d love to hear what’s going on and ask some good questions with you.
👉Book your appointment here, DR. ADELLE SEMMLER, DR. HARRIET WALKER
