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Acupuncture for Menopause – as part of a Holistic Natural Treatment Plan

Woman Balancing during Menopause
Achieving Balance Naturally during Menopause
Menopause affects all women, so of course there’s great interest in treating it naturally. And the best natural treatment is a combination of acupuncture, aromatherapy and massage. All three are equally useful in very different ways. Let’s start with a quick discussion of acupuncture for menopause.

Why use acupuncture for menopause?

When we use acupuncture, what we’re doing is balancing the body’s energies a bit like giving  your car a tune up. The is usually a bit topsy turvy during menopause, because there’s so much change going on. The main meridians used in acupuncture for menopause are the liver and the spleen. It’s interesting to look at the emotions they relate to.
  • The liver is associated with anger and frustration – and we’re all quite aware that menopausal women have a reputation for being a little angry sometimes!
  • The spleen is even more interesting. We have the phrase ‘to vent your spleen’ meaning to get rid of anger, but in acupuncture, the spleen is actually associated with the emotion of worry. Potentially the link here is that you might be worrying about your life and your future and how things are changing. For many women, menopause is a time of change – almost the end of an era. You lose the capability of having children, something which many women think is just core to being a woman. So it’s easy to worry about your purpose in life after menopause. Often it is a time of the empty nest & finding new life, lifestyle, child free which may have been the main purpose of living for many woman.
In case you’re wondering, Western scientific research has confirmed the value of acupuncture in managing menopause.

Other natural treatments for menopause

Geranium oil for hormonal balance

Moving on from acupuncture, aromatherapy is very useful during the hormonal changes of menopause. Many of the essential oils will help with settling  your hormonal balances and making you calmer. A great oil to use for this kind of thing is geranium oil. Geranium is good as both a hormonal balancer, it is also good for balancing oily/dry skin & helps with emotional balance when on the “roller coaster” ups & downs in life.

Sage tea to treat night sweats

Interestingly one thing I should mention is sage tea. I like to get mine in bulk from the Indian Herb and Spice Shop, but you can also get sage tea in most health food shops. Use sage tea specifically to treat hot flashes and night sweats. I remember one client who had the most terrible night sweats. She didn’t have very many hot flashes in the day but she was soaking the bedsheets every night, having to get up and change them. I gave her a number of treatments, including aromatherapy and acupuncture for her menopausal symptoms, then I provided her with sage tea to take home as well. Within two to three weeks, her night sweats were gone. Of course she still had to change the sheets sometimes, but only the way all of us do! It was a very effective treatment. Another thing I do for menopausal patients is to put together a cream with a number of ingredients. It includes wild yam, which has natural progesterone. According to Dr. John Lee, most doctors give women oestrogen for bone density loss that is common at this time, where what they need is progesterone. As long as you take natural progesterone, your body can convert it to oestrogen, if needed. Whereas synthetic progestins in HRT can’t be converted. Finally, I use some balancing aromatherapy oils at this time – geranium, rose, lavender, a bit of rosemary for remembrance, and maybe a bit of clary sage (the natural high oil).

Reducing forgetfulness

The rosemary gives another link to using acupuncture for menopause here – because the spleen meridian is associated with memory as well as worry. We all know that one of the things women experience in menopause is absent mindedness – a loss of short term memory. They find it hard to keep up with the multitude of different things that they have to keep in their heads the whole day multi-tasking.

Thyroid issues and weight gain

Another common issue during menopause is weight gain. This is often related to an underactive thyroid. So how do we treat thyroid issues naturally? Metaphysically the thyroid is about starting to do what you want to do with your life instead of sacrificing yourself for family. Menopause is a time when a lot of women rediscover themselves and spread their wings. It’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. It can be painful and you may need some help through the immediate symptoms of menopause, but any time of change is a time of opportunity. And finally… The more balanced you are, the better you are with your diet, your life, and your lifestyle, the better! The most balanced women experience far less extreme symptoms as they go through menopause. If that’s you, congratulations and keep it up! Or maybe, like so many of us, menopause has you a bit out of control? That’s fine too. We all need help at some stage of our lives – and that’s often menopause, because of all the change going on. But we’re all still different. That’s why I like to spend a bit of time discussing you, your concerns,  your experiences, so I can work out a treatment just for you. If you’d like a personalised treatment of aromatherapy, massage and acupuncture for menopause, just get in touch. I’d love to help you feel better. About the world. And about yourself.