“Can acupuncture help my hormones?” I get that question a lot in my practice. I do believe as women we are becoming more intuitive in our bodies, and increasingly want a natural solution to hormone symptoms. And the answer to the question is YES, acupuncture can help your hormones! Whether you have hot flashes, night sweats, irritability, depression, PMS, heavy periods or cramping, acupuncture can smooth out, tame or eliminate symptoms.

It’s all about getting to the root of the problem, which is a true specialty of natural medicine, and especially Chinese Medicine. It’s not about covering up the symptoms with drugs.

How does acupuncture work? Acupuncture is energy medicine at it’s finest, working on meridians, or channels of energy that run through the body. Acupuncture is just one part of Chinese Medicine, and works to bring your body energies back into balance which can allow healing to occur.

An example of how acupuncture works with hormones is the liver energy can become “stagnant” (a Chinese Medicine term that the energy is blocked, or like a stagnant pool of water). Your energy, also called Qi, needs to flow smoothly, and if it becomes stagnant it can be a prime cause of symptoms like cramping, PMS, and irritability.

Keeping the energy in your meridians flowing smoothly is a natural and necessary path to health. It can also help you sleep better, and help with stress reduction through relaxation.

Here are some of the benefits I see my women patients getting with acupuncture and their hormones:

  • Relaxation! Acupuncture can be very relaxing during the treatment, but also can have an increase in your feeling of well being afterwards
  • Improved sleep
  • Improved menstrual periods with less cramping and less heavy bleeding or clotting
  • PMS and irritability are reduced and smoothed out
  • Hot flashes and night sweats can lessen in severity, or disappear altogether
  • Improved mood, less depression
  • An alternative for women who want a natural treatment for menopause symptoms, especially if they can’t, or don’t want, to take hormones

These are just a few symptoms that can be treated and helped with acupuncture, but in my experience it can be an extremely helpful treatment to improve your hormones naturally. It is also a treatment that is individualized for your own energy patterns. Any good practitioner will do a thorough work up on you, and should include a history as well as a pulse and tongue exam (Chinese Medicine uses these to evaluate energy). Your energy pattern, as well as treatment, will be unique to you.

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