Research Update: Acupuncture Reduces Menopausal Hot Flashes

Symptoms of menopausal transition are a major problem for some women. Hot flashes, night sweats and the attendant insomnia and weight gain can significantly reduce quality of life during perimenopause and menopause. Rapidly changing hormone levels can impact brain function as well. To add insult to injury, some women’s symptoms are not temporary, but drag on for years. 

In my practice, acupuncture has been a very successful tool to reduce the discomfort of hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause. Now high-quality studies back up this clinical experience. 

Researchers at Duke University in 2016 ran a randomized control trial on the effects of acupuncture on hot flashes  in 209 women. One hundred seventy women received 20 acupuncture treatments, at a frequency of just over once a week. After only three to four weeks, their symptoms improved. By eight weeks of treatment, nearly half (47 percent) of women reported a 47 percent reduction in hot flashes. Twelve percent reported an 85 percent drop in the number they experienced. In 2018, a meta-analysis of seven studies also concluded that acupuncture effectively reduces menopausal hot flashes.

This is great news, especially for women who cannot or do not want to use hormone replacement therapy. Or it can be used as an adjunct treatment for those women where HRT doesn’t fully solve their complaints. These studies confirm what we see in clinic—that acupuncture is a safe and effective therapy to treat menopausal symptoms.