Why Mayan Abdominal Massage is Medicine for Your Menstrual Cycle, Fertility, and Perimenopause
For thousands of years, traditional Mayan healers have understood something modern medicine is only beginning to remember: the position, circulation, and energetic flow of your womb directly impacts your entire reproductive health.
Mayan abdominal massage—also called sobada or arvigo therapy—is an ancient practice of external abdominal and pelvic massage that addresses the root cause of many women's health struggles. This isn't just rubbing your belly. This is skilled, intentional bodywork that repositions your uterus, restores circulation, releases fascial restrictions, and invites your body back into balance.
Whether you're navigating painful periods, trying to conceive, or moving through the threshold of perimenopause, this work offers deep support for your body's natural rhythms.
The Foundation: Uterine Position Matters
Most women don't know that their uterus can shift out of optimal position. Your uterus is held in place by ligaments, and when those ligaments become tight, twisted, or weakened, your uterus can tip backward (retroverted), fall too low, or shift to one side.
This misalignment happens from:
Chronic stress and tension held in the pelvis
Scar tissue from surgeries, infections, or endometriosis
Past trauma—physical, sexual, or emotional
Poor posture and prolonged sitting
Wearing restrictive clothing
Falls or accidents that jar the pelvis
Difficult births or multiple pregnancies
When your uterus isn't in its rightful place, everything downstream suffers. Blood flow becomes restricted. Lymphatic drainage slows. Nerves get compressed. Your organs can't function as they were designed to.
Mayan abdominal massage gently guides your uterus back to center, releases the adhesions holding it in place, and restores proper circulation. This is the foundation that allows healing to happen.
For Menstruation: Easing Pain and Restoring Flow
If you experience painful periods, you've likely been told this is normal. It's common, yes. But it's not normal—and you don't have to live with it.
Menstrual pain often comes from:
Poor circulation to the uterus (cold, stagnant blood)
Uterine misalignment causing cramping as blood tries to exit
Congested lymphatic system
Inflammation and scar tissue
Unresolved emotional holding in the womb
Mayan abdominal massage addresses all of these. By improving blood flow to your uterus, we bring fresh oxygen and nutrients while clearing out old, stagnant tissue. When your uterus is properly positioned, menstrual blood can flow freely without the painful cramping that comes from forcing blood through a kinked or tipped uterus.
This work also supports your liver and digestive organs, which play a huge role in hormone metabolism. When your liver is congested, it can't properly clear excess estrogen—leading to heavier, more painful periods.
Women who receive regular Mayan abdominal massage often experience:
Shorter, lighter periods
Significant reduction in cramping
Less PMS and mood swings
Improved energy during menstruation
More regular cycles
Reduced clotting
This happens because your body finally has what it needs to do its work properly: good circulation proper positioning, and space to release what no longer serves.
For Fertility: Creating Optimal Conditions for Conception
If you're trying to conceive, Mayan abdominal massage can be powerful medicine—not as a quick fix, but as a way to restore your body's natural fertility.
Fertility requires:
Good blood flow to the uterus and ovaries
Open fallopian tubes
Balanced hormones
A well-positioned uterus
Low inflammation
A regulated nervous system
Healthy cervical mucus
When circulation to your reproductive organs is compromised, your ovaries may not receive the hormonal signals they need. Your uterine lining may not build properly. Implantation becomes more difficult. Mayan massage restores this vital blood flow.
This work is especially supportive for:
Blocked or partially blocked fallopian tubes
Scar tissue from endometriosis, fibroids, or past surgeries
Hormonal imbalances (irregular cycles, PCOS)
Unexplained infertility
Preparing the body for IVF (improving uterine lining thickness)
Recurrent miscarriage (when related to uterine position or circulation)
But here's what matters most: Mayan abdominal massage doesn't just work on your physical body. It works on the emotional and energetic blocks that live in your womb. Trying to conceive brings up ancestral patterns, past losses, fear, grief, and the pressure of wanting something you can't control.
This massage creates space for those emotions to move. It signals to your nervous system that it's safe to create life. It helps you drop out of the stress response that actually inhibits fertility and into a state of receptivity and trust.
Conception is not just a mechanical process. It's a mystery, an invitation, a surrender. This work tends to all of it.
For Perimenopause: Supporting the Transition
Perimenopause is not a disease to be fixed—it's a sacred threshold, an initiation into your wise woman years. But that doesn't mean it's easy.
The years leading up to menopause bring:
Irregular cycles (shorter, longer, heavier, or skipped)
Hot flashes and night sweats
Mood swings and irritability
Low libido
Vaginal dryness
Weight gain, especially around the belly
Fatigue and brain fog
Anxiety and sleep disturbances
Much of this comes from hormonal fluctuations as your ovaries begin to wind down estrogen production. But it's also about circulation, liver health, lymphatic drainage, and how much stress and unresolved emotion your body has been holding for decades.
Mayan abdominal massage during perimenopause:
Supports your liver in metabolizing the shifting hormones
Improves circulation to keep tissues healthy and lubricated
Reduces abdominal bloating and digestive issues common in this phase
Helps regulate your nervous system (reducing hot flashes and anxiety)
Supports lymphatic drainage to reduce inflammation
Creates space for the grief, rage, or relief that this transition brings
Honors your womb even as her bleeding years come to an end
This is also a time to address any uterine prolapse, which becomes more common as estrogen declines and pelvic floor support weakens. Mayan massage can't reverse severe prolapse, but it can provide symptomatic relief and prevent further descent.
Perimenopause asks you to slow down, to tend to yourself, to release what you've been carrying. This massage is medicine for that invitation.
The Emotional and Spiritual Layer
Here's what I know after years of doing this work: your womb holds more than just reproductive organs. She holds your stories. Your trauma. Your unexpressed emotions. Your creative power. Your lineage.
When I work on your belly, I'm not just moving tissue. I'm witnessing what wants to be released. Women cry on my table. They rage. They laugh. They remember things they've forgotten. This is part of the healing.
Mayan abdominal massage is a conversation between my hands and your body's wisdom. It's a practice of listening, of tending, of creating safety for what needs to move.
Whether you're menstruating, trying to conceive, or moving through perimenopause, this work invites you back into relationship with your womb. Not as something broken that needs fixing, but as a wise teacher who has been waiting for you to listen.
This is Essential Medicine for Every Woman
Here's what I believe: every woman should know how to tend to her own womb. This shouldn't be specialized knowledge reserved for practitioners—it should be as natural as brushing your teeth or washing your face.
Mayan abdominal massage is not just something you receive on a treatment table. It's a practice you learn, embody, and bring into your daily life. When you understand how to care for your own belly, you become empowered in your own healing. You stop waiting for someone else to fix you and remember that your hands hold medicine too.
This is preventative care. When you tend to your womb regularly—even just a few minutes a day—you keep circulation flowing, prevent stagnation, release tension before it becomes pain, and stay connected to the wisdom your body is always speaking.
That's why self-care is woven into every session I offer.
I don't just work on you—I teach you how to work on yourself. Each treatment includes hands-on instruction in simple techniques you can practice at home:
Self-massage strokes for your abdomen that improve circulation and digestion
How to locate and support your uterus with your own hands
Castor oil pack application for deeper detoxification and softening
Breath practices that bring energy and awareness to your womb
Womb meditation to deepen your connection and listen to what she needs
This isn't complicated. These are gentle, intuitive practices that take 5-10 minutes and can be done while you're resting, before bed, or during your moon time.
My goal is not to make you dependent on me. My goal is to give you the tools so you become the primary keeper of your own womb. Yes, you'll still benefit from receiving skilled bodywork—but between sessions, you're actively participating in your healing. You're not passive. You're empowered.
When women reclaim the knowledge of how to care for their own bodies, everything shifts. You trust yourself more. You listen better. You catch imbalances before they become chronic. You pass this wisdom to your daughters.
This is how we restore the lost art of womb tending—one woman at a time, learning to place her hands on her own belly and remember.
How Often Should You Receive This Work?
For active concerns (painful periods, fertility support, perimenopausal symptoms):
Weekly or bi-weekly sessions for 3-4 months, then maintenance monthly
Daily self-care practice at home between sessions
For general womb wellness and prevention:
Monthly sessions, ideally aligned with your cycle
Quarterly sessions during major life transitions
Regular self-massage practice 3-5 times per week
The combination of receiving skilled treatment and practicing self-care at home creates the deepest, most lasting transformation.
This is Not a Quick Fix
Mayan abdominal massage works cumulatively. Your body needs time to shift patterns it's been holding for years or decades. This is slow medicine. Patient medicine. Medicine that asks you to participate in your own healing.
But when you commit to this work, your body responds. Not always in the ways you expect, but in the ways you need.
Your womb is sacred ground. She deserves to be tended with skill, reverence, and deep listening.
This is what Mayan abdominal massage offers: a return to the wisdom your body has always held.
If you're ready to begin this work, I invite you to reach out. Together, we'll listen to what your womb needs and create a path forward that honors your unique body, story, and healing journey.
xo Christine Jude
