Check out the story ABC news recently showed about acupuncture treating menopause symptoms. While they are reporting on a recent study done, Chinese Medicine has been treating these symptoms successfully for thousands of years. In my own experience, most patients do see impressive results from acupuncture and Chinese herbs to relieve menopause symptoms, such as hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings. I would like to share a few specific situations in which my patients found acupuncture and Chinese herbs helpful in controlling their menopause symptoms.
One patient I treated had been on hormone replacement therapy for years and wanted to stop taking these medications. As an acupuncturist I cannot tell patients to change dosage or stop medications, so this patient was working with her PCP doctor as she completely stopped taking these hormones. Her doctor was happy to help her do this, but predicted that she would have to go back to the original dosage because he felt her symptoms would come back. When she first stopped the hormones, she had a lot of hot flashes throughout the day and some fairly severe night sweats a few times per night. However, this patient was determined to use alternative therapies that were more natural. Three months of acupuncture treatment and Chinese herbs did allow this patient to stay off the hormone replacement therapy and use only an over-the-counter hormone cream. After those first three months of acupuncture treatment, she noticed less frequent and less severe hot flashes and rarely had any night sweats. The acupuncture also helped a lot with her anxiety. She reported that the acupuncture and herbs didn’t give her the complete resolution that the hormone replacement therapy gave her, but it did make the symptoms tolerable. That allowed her to stay off the medication, which was what was so important to her. This patient also realized that she had been on the hormones for many years and that it would take some time for her body to adjust and balance. She continued treatment of acupuncture and herbs which continued to reduce her symptoms.
Another patient turned to acupuncture and Chinese herbs as soon as her first menopause symptoms showed up. She first went to acupuncture for symptoms of severe night sweats that would come on about once per week. For this patient, she only received acupuncture treatment once per month and was given a general Chinese herbal formula in pill form to Tonify Yin, but that was enough to stop the night sweats. As she progressed through menopause she continued to receive acupuncture treatments as needed and continued the herbal formula. Today, this patient has few menopause symptoms, but she reports that when they do pop up at times she is able to take the herbal formula again for a short time and resolves the symptoms. Plus, she still receives acupuncture regularly to keep overall balance in her body. This patient is glad she was able to use the natural treatment of acupuncture and herbal medicine to keep her menopause symptoms to a minimum.
As with anything, treatment and success depends on each patient’s specific situation, needs, and goals, but I hope these examples help to show how treatment of menopause symptoms with acupuncture can and has been used in real life in my practice. Menopause symptoms can be very uncomfortable and distressing for women, so I strongly encourage anyone experiencing them to give acupuncture a try!
Video Menopause & Acupuncture on ABC News:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/study-shows-acupuncture-curb-severity-hot-flashes-menopause/story?id=13075594
By: Jessica Tatieze, L.Ac
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