Acupuncture for Menopause

Although it might feel like it when you are beet red and dripping with sweat in the middle of a cool room, menopause is not a disease or a disorder. 

This is a natural time of transition for women. You might find this hard to believe but there really are women who don’t experience any negative symptoms during menopause.

But for those who do, the goal of acupuncture and herbal treatments during peri-menopause and menopause is to make the transition as comfortable as possible by reducing symptoms and easing into the stopping of the monthly cycle.

The most common symptoms my patients experience are hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, loss of focus, dryness, headaches, anxiety, irritability, or depression.

Clinical Research for Acupuncture Treatment during Menopause

Hot flashes in particular are a target of clinic research trials.  One study for postmenopausal hot flashes compared traditional acupuncture, sham acupuncture, herbal medicine, and placebo herbal medicine treatments over the course of 12 weeks.(1)

After 12 treatments, the group receiving traditional acupuncture maintained the greatest reduction in symptoms during the following 3 months of no treatment. 

Real Life Case Study on Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

Here’s a real life example with one of my patients…

Julie (*name changed) came in for treatment because she was waking from night sweats every two hours on five or six nights a week, often to the point of having to change pyjamas that she sweated through.  The disruption to her sleep was then affecting her energy during the day.

We also discovered her symptoms increase whenever she gets very stressed and when she has too many sugary treats and breads on the same day.

After five treatments at once a week, she was sleeping through most nights, waking at most only one time a couple of nights a week, and rarely had to change pajamas.

With the benefits of treatment, cutting back on some treats, and the improved sleep, her focus was noticeably better at work during the day and her mood at home in the evening had been a lot more up-beat which her family noticed.

We then moved her treatment interval out two weeks to see how things would hold and did that for another three visits to make sure the benefits were more stable.

Now she only needs to comes in on occasion when it feels like she needs a tune-up.

Are you suffering from hot flashes or night sweats?

Here’s something interesting with acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine:  five different women can walk into the clinic all with symptoms of menopause, but they will end up with five different treatment protocols.

When you come in for an acupuncture treatment, we will first talk over your main symptoms and concerns. But then we also discuss other areas that might seem unrelated at first.

For example, how is your digestion?  Do you have other aches and pains?  How is your appetite and thirst?  What are the current stressors in your life?  All of this plays a role in your symptoms and your progress.

Traditional Chinese medicine is customized to treat the whole unique person, not just the hot flashes.

If you are suffering uncomfortably from symptoms during menopause, you can schedule an appointment by calling us at 815-942-2580 or click Book Now. 

(1)   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23676632