Auricular Therapy and How it Can Help With Menopause.

In the UK, approximately 13 million women are dealing with symptoms related to menopause (Nuffield Hospital, 2017). Despite this, UK women receive a lack of support or treatment for symptoms relating to menopause and hormonal changes, resulting in one in four women struggling to cope with aspects of life due to their symptoms (BMS, 2019). While there has been encouraging data concerning the safety of hormonal replacement therapy (HRT), women and many healthcare professionals still remain cautious about the use of HRT for menopause due to the purported risks associated with the intervention, particularly concerning the risk of cardiovascular disease and breast cancer (NICE, 2019). As a consequence, the risks associated with HRT have generated an increase interest in complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) in the treatment of symptoms associated with menopause such as anxiety, hot flashes and insomnia. 

Auricular therapy which is a form of complementary and alternative medicine has been shown to be effective in treating symptoms related to menopause. Based on the Chnese medicine channel and meridian theory, auricular therapy involves the external aspect of the auricle or ear being stimulated by either fine needles or acupressure to target pathological conditions in other regions of the body (Olesen, 2014). The origin of auricular therapy is mainly based on the ancient Chinese medical practice of body acupuncture and further developed by the French physician Dr Paul Nogier and colleagues in the 1950s. Auricular therapy involves auricular acupuncture, auricular electroacupuncture stimulation and auricular acupressure with seeds. Auricular therapy is recognised by The World Health Organisation (WHO) as a promising therapeutic approach for its effectiveness in managing a variety of disorders including insomnia and anxiety.

There have been several studies on the use of auricular therapy in managing many of the symptoms of menopause. For instance, a study on auricular therapy in treating hot flashes experienced by women with menopause showed that auricular therapy can effectively decrease the levels of follicle stimulating hormones (FSH) and increase the level of estrodial (Zhou et al., 2011). As an increase in the level FSH and a decrease in estrodial are mainly associated with hot flashes during the menopause, it is seen that a decrease in the levels of FSH and an increase estrodial demonstrates that auricular therapy can help alleviate the severity and frequency of menopausal hot flashes. When it comes to other menopausal symptoms such as anxiety, some randomised controlled studies have shown that auricular therapy to be effective in reducing anxiety related to peri and post-menopausal women (Kao et al., 2012; Kurst et al., 2007; Wang & Kain, 2001). In studies that explored the efficacy of auricular therapy in women with insomnia, it was shown that auricular acupressure intervention leads to more cardiac parasympathetic and less cardiac sympathetic activity, which contributes to the improvement of postmenopausal insomnia (Kung et al., 2011).  

Auricular therapy is safe, effective and a low-cost therapy in treating various conditions and can be performed effectively in a group setting.

By Cassandra Hawthorne