Relief Acupuncture for Perimenopause
What is Perimenopause?Acupuncture for perimenopause offers an effective treatment for managing the transition period around menopause, where hormonal and physiological changes occur. Perimenopause refers to a period around menopause, which marks a transition period of female’s sexual function from maturity to decline or to the end of reproductive time. This transition period usually starts in the mid-40s, but some females might even start this process as early as their late-30s. Perimenopause is actually a normal process for females to have some physiological changes. Due to body constitution differences, and social and psychological factors, females who could not adapt to this physiological transition smoothly, would develop perimenopausal syndrome accordingly.What Causes Perimenopausal Symptoms?Perimenopause involves a series of clinical symptoms caused by endocrine (i.e., reproductive endocrine and neuroendocrine) disorders and autonomic dysfunction which are triggered by decreased estrogen level. As ovarian function declines to complete loss, both blood estrogen and progesterone levels drop, which breaks up the balance of hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian axis, and thus leads to autonomic dysfunction.Common Symptoms of PerimenopauseTypical symptoms are irregular periods (i.e., the coming period is unpredictable as the length of time between two periods varies dramatically).Popular clinical symptoms include sleep disorders (i.e., insomnia, shallow sleep, easy to wake up, dreaminess), sweating after hot flashes, fatigue, palpitation, dizziness, ear ringing, irritability, depression, anxiety, joint pain (osteoarthritis), low back sore, and heel pain.Other common clinical symptoms include forgetfulness, breast fullness, abnormal skin sensations, knee weakness, decreased sexual desire, intercourse pain, etc.The symptoms vary in severity and may show up partially or entirely in some severe cases.Acupuncture and Perimenopause in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)According to TCM theory, the degeneration of the kidney’s function is the fundamental pathogenesis. Deficiency of the conception vessel and penetrating vessel leads to [...]