Acupuncture for Menopause

Hot flashes, dryness, irritability, and night sweats are common symptoms of menopause. While hormone replacement therapy can be helpful, not everyone is willing or able to use pharmaceutical help. Fortunately, Traditonal Chinese Medicine has been treating mature women for millennia, and has great answers. It's all about the Yin/Yang balance within us.

More detailed information on Yin and Yang here.

Think of Yin as being the moist, nourishing, quiet, still, internal, “feminine” aspect of your being. Yang is the other side of the coin: It’s the loud, bright, moving, motivating, expanding, “masculine” side of you. Yin is calmer, while Yang is more excitable and prone to anger. See how the white Yang is rising, while the black Yin is descending? Note also that each contains a bit of the other: They are incomplete without the other half of the pair. There is a delicate balancing act between the two types of energies, and they influence each other. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, in menopause, your Yin is waning, so the Yang is rising out of control.

A woman going through menopause is Yin deficient. Her Yang, no longer held in check by her Yin, causes hot flashes, night sweats, and dryness of the skin and other bodily fluids. To ease this “change of life,” we start by using acupuncture points to clear excess heat (the symptoms). Other points act to nourish the Yin (the cause). These treatments are surprisingly powerful for smoothing out the hormonal changes.

The good news is that not only can we treat both the cause and the symptoms, but it's clinically proven to work! This study looked at VMS - Vasomotor symptoms, aka hot flashes - and found that the VMS frequency declined by 36.7% at 6 months in the acupuncture group and increased by 6.0% in the control group! Even better, the reduction had continued when followup surveys were taken 12 months later.

LI4 is marked between the bones of the 1st and 2nd metatarsals, and LI11 is anterior to the lateral epicondyle of the elbow

Just as example: Here are two points you can use as home acupressure for symptomatic relief from hot flashes: Press gently but firmly on these two points for a few seconds to clear excess heat. Do both the left and the right sides. You will know when you're in the right spot - they will be tender. LI-4 and LI-11.

LI4 is marked on the top of her hand between the bones of the thumb and forefinger, and LI-11 is just forward of her elbow on the outside of the arm

Come in for a full assessment and customized plan to support your Yin. We can't stop menopause, but we can make it much more comfortable. These treatments are fully compatible with hormone replacement therapy, but effective even without it.