Menopause is one of the most significant transitions a woman’s body will move through and one of the least well-supported. For something that affects every woman, it’s remarkable how often the experience is minimised, rushed through in a short appointment, or met with a one-size approach that doesn’t quite fit.
If you’re in perimenopause or menopause and trying to figure out what support is right for you, this is worth reading. Not because I’m going to tell you what to do, but because you deserve a clear picture of what’s available and what Chinese medicine specifically can offer alongside or instead of other approaches.
Perimenopause, the years leading up to your final period, can begin as early as your late thirties and typically spans several years. During this time, oestrogen and progesterone levels fluctuate and gradually decline, which can produce a wide range of symptoms: hot flushes, night sweats, disrupted sleep, mood changes, brain fog, weight changes, vaginal dryness, joint pain, anxiety, and a general sense of not feeling like yourself.
Every woman’s experience is different. Some move through it with relatively little disruption. Others find it profoundly destabilising, not just physically, but in terms of identity, energy, and sense of self. Both are valid. And both deserve proper support.
Hormone therapy (previously called HRT) replaces the hormones that decline during menopause and can be highly effective at reducing symptoms, particularly hot flushes and night sweats. It also has established benefits for bone density and cardiovascular health in certain groups. For many women it is the right choice, and attitudes toward it have shifted considerably in recent years as earlier concerns about risk have been better contextualised.
If you’re considering hormone therapy, a conversation with your GP or a menopause specialist is the right starting point. It’s not something I prescribe or advise on directly, but it’s also not something that precludes working with me. Many of the women I see are on hormone therapy and find that Chinese medicine addresses things it doesn’t fully reach.
Chinese medicine has been working with the female hormonal transition for thousands of years. In this framework, menopause isn’t a deficiency to be corrected, it’s a significant shift in a woman’s constitution that, when supported well, can be a passage into greater clarity, groundedness, and self-knowledge. That doesn’t mean the symptoms aren’t real or that they should just be accepted. It means there’s a different way of understanding and working with what’s happening.
Acupuncture and Chinese medicine look at the whole picture, your particular pattern of symptoms, your constitution, your history, how you’re sleeping and living. Treatment is individual. Two women with hot flushes may receive quite different treatment because the pattern driving their symptoms is different.
The areas where many women find Chinese medicine most helpful during this transition include sleep disturbance, anxiety and mood changes, hot flushes and night sweats, fatigue, joint pain, and that harder-to-name feeling of having lost the thread of themselves. I may also suggest simple adjustments to diet or daily rhythm that support the body through the transition, not as rules to follow, but as things that tend to make a genuine difference.
For some women, hormone therapy isn’t suitable, due to personal or family medical history, or simply personal preference. Some women find they can’t tolerate it, or that their symptoms actually worsen on it. For others, it helps with some symptoms but not all. And for many, the emotional and identity dimension of this transition, the grief, the recalibration of self, the question of who you’re becoming, isn’t something any medication addresses.
This is where Chinese medicine often has the most to offer. Not as a second-best option, but as an approach that meets the whole experience of menopause; body, mind, and the deeper sense of self, rather than managing individual symptoms in isolation.
Chinese medicine and hormone therapy are not mutually exclusive. Many women I work with are on hormone therapy and benefit from acupuncture alongside it. The two approaches work at different levels and tend to complement rather than interfere with each other. If you’re currently on hormone therapy or considering it, I’m happy to discuss how acupuncture might fit alongside your existing care.
The initial consultation is a full appointment, a thorough conversation followed by your first treatment. I’ll want to understand your whole history, what you’re experiencing now, and what you’re hoping for. Menopause support is not a quick fix, and I’ll be honest with you about timelines. What most women notice first is a shift in sleep or anxiety and from there, things tend to build.
If you’re navigating perimenopause or menopause, and you’re looking for support that takes the whole experience seriously, not just the hot flushes, I’d love to hear from you.
Appointments can be either in person or online.
You’re welcome to reach out before booking if you’d like to talk through whether this is right for you. I’d rather have an honest conversation first.
