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Menopause - A Whole New Beginning

by Yosef Pollack, L.Ac.

Boy oh boy, menopause is a real roller coaster ride. If you think it knocks your body out of whack, just think about what it does to your body’s yin and yang. After you go through it, your yin won’t know itself from your yang.

One of the really weird things that happen is women discover their yang energy, which is the aggressive and generally more “masculine” of the two, to be raging out of control. Conversely, men find the passive and yielding yin coming on stronger.

It’s really difficult to find menopause treatments that work, but traditional Chinese medicine is a great way to control the symptoms. Because it deals directly with the body’s hormonal balance (which is dramatically altered by “the change”), TCM effectively helps when menopause arrives.

Menopause Is Not a Syndrome in Other Cultures

In the West, we see menopause as a syndrome and we treat it almost like a disease. This is the time in a woman’s life where she stops being reproductive. Because it is viewed as an illness, it carries a certain stigma. It makes women feel like they’re getting old and their body is shutting down. When they seek medical relief, western doctors treat it like a disease rather than a natural life process like puberty.

While most western women experience menopause with dread, women in the East regard it as no big deal. It also doesn’t affect them as much physically. Furthermore, eastern cultures don’t perceive it as a huge event in a woman’s life. The traditional Chinese view is that a woman’s body stops reproducing, but also begins conserving its qi for times when they’ll need extra as they get older.

When troublesome symptoms do occur during menopause, TCM sees it as a symptom of something else, like a kidney yin deficiency or stagnation of qi in the liver. In other words, they don’t see menopause as a disease that needs treatment; it’s a natural stage in a woman’s life. However, specific symptoms can be treated on their own.

Make The Hot Flashes Stop!

Probably the most notorious menopause symptom is the dreaded hot flash. You’ve got all kinds of heat and dryness problems going on in your body because of the hormonal imbalances occurring. These include daytime hot flashes, drenching night sweats, dryness all over your body, and more. Acupuncture and TCM help reduce these symptoms by strengthening the yin energy in your body. This brings a coolness and moistness that helps reduce the heat.

Fight Fatigue with Acupuncture

Acupuncture also helps to reduce the fatigue most women feel when menopause sets in. Because of the hormonal imbalances, most women feel tired and irritable a lot of the time. This raises stress levels and causes mood swings, depression, anxiety and worse. TCM uses a variety of treatments together – acupuncture, herbal teas/pills, massage, exercise, dietary changes – that work to restore this balance and restore you to your normal self.

TCM Can Erase The Migraines

Another menopause problem that TCM has been successful in treating is the migraine headache. This is a common symptom of menopause. Acupuncture is great for relieving migraine headaches, whether they’re menopausal or not. The insertion of thin needles into key points releases areas of clogged qi and stagnation, letting it flow freely.

Menopause isn’t a disease; it’s simply a physical change in a woman’s body that occurs later in life. It affects the balance of yin and yang in the body, and TCM works pretty well at getting the balance back so you can get on with your life.