1st place
gold star award
Amy Siqveland
united states 
title
Leech Therapy Revisited
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entry description
Leeches, when placed on the body, will go to the part of the body where there's a malady, attach themselves and start sucking. They will supposedly suck until full of the "bad blood" and then release and go away. A specific type of leech therapy was described to me before the first photo where a doctor would place a noose around a woman’s neck until the woman passed out. While this was happening, veins would supposedly appear on the patient’s forehead. The doctor would then cut the largest vein and the patient would bleed from that spot ~1-2 cups of blood. The people who took me to the leech clinic I visited in Shiraz, Iran believed that the described treatment significantly helped with physical and psychological problems which were connected to a woman's womb or the loss of a baby. As I have a blood disease that causes a lot of chronic inflammatory and allergic-type reactions in multiple systems (including my uterus), I've been researching non-traditional medical options around the world. A few years later, I decided to do a photo project about my condition and to include what I had learned in this earlier experience.back to gallery
