Uterine Bleeding Disorders from the Perspective of Persian Traditional Medicine; A Proof for Originality of Individual-Based Medicine in Iranian Traditional Medicine

One of the most important problems of women in their reproductive age is menstrual disorders and vaginal bleedings. The prevalence rate of these bleedings among women referring to gynecology clinics has been reported to be 19.1%. Treatment of these disorders in modern medicine includes hormone therapy accompanied with medicinal supplements. Iranian medicine, as a humor-based medicine school, has a specific view about the classification of causing factors of these disorders. This review study was performed to investigate the causes of abnormal vaginal bleedings from the perspective of Traditional Persian Medicine through reviewing the available texts and references of Iranian traditional medicine. In Iranian medicine books Efrat-e-tams (hypermenorrhea) is classified to two general normal and abnormal types. In normal type, due to the great amount of blood, the nature plays a role in drain of blood into a natural exit such as uterine. The abnormal type is divided into two subtypes; the first, is related to the problems in the quantity or quality of the patient’s blood and the second type is due to the problem in the uterine that causes blood loss. It seems that attention to the causes of diseases from the perspective of Iranian medicine opens a new perspective in the treatment of menstrual disorders for modern physicians. Studying these causes, beside whatever is known in modern medicine about control of menstrual disorders, can help us to come to better treatments with fewer complications.