MENOPAUSE ARTICLE FOR “The Woman’s Page”... March 2006
Use your Head......The most natural approach to Hot Flashes and Menopause
By Patrick Bowe
For the Woman’s Page
There is a very new specialist who can assist with the discomforts of menopause, you. It has been shown that the mind can reduce or stop hot flashes and other menopausal discomfort. This is somewhat surprising, even to many most familiar with the mind/body frontier. The effect has been formally demonstrated in studies using hypnosis with breast cancer patients (cancer treatment can bring about menopausal symptoms). The changes seen in these studies are also easily achieved with general menopausal symptoms. Dramatic improvements in hot flashes, sleep patterns, anxiety and well-being are quite straightforward.
clock Jul 8, 2005 3:53 pm US/Central
Hypnosis Tested To Control Hot Flashes
Many Abandon Hormone Replacement Therapy For Cancer Fear
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Mary Ann Childers
Reporting
(CBS) CHICAGO Most women going through menopause experience hot flashes. Hormone replacement therapy helps, but many women have abandoned the treatment because of the risk of breast cancer.
Experts are testing a non-drug treatment that’s been around for centuries.
Few women go through the symptoms of menopause twice in their life but Kay Dolzel has. First when she was 36 and had a hysterectomy, then just recently after treatment for breast cancer.
The anti-cancer drugs she took caused sudden and severe hot flashes.
“The hot flashes just come in wave after wave after wave, just usually from the center, building up and going down,” Dolzel said.
Dolzel was desperate to fight the flashes. So she turned to a government study looking at the effectiveness of hypnosis for hot flashes.
“During the session, that patient is instructed in entering a very deeply relaxed state and then we use mental images for coolness to counteract the effects of hot flashes,” said Dr. Gary Elkins.
Kay went to five hypnotherapy sessions and kept a daily log. She went from having nearly 60 hot flashes a week to just four.
The technique seems to be working for others in the study, too.
“We found a 58 percent decrease in the frequency of hot flashes and also very importantly, 76 percent decrease in the severity of hot flashes,” Elkins said.
Can hypnosis reduce hot flashes in breast cancer survivors? A literature review.
Elkins G, Marcus J, Palamara L, Stearns V.
Scott and White Hospital and Clinic, Temple, TX 76508, USA.
Hot flashes are a significant problem for many breast cancer survivors and can cause discomfort, insomnia, anxiety, and decreased quality of life. In the past, the standard treatment for hot flashes has been hormone replacement therapy. However, recent research has found an increased risk of breast cancer in women receiving hormone replacement therapy. As a result, many menopausal women and breast cancer survivors reject hormone replacement therapy and many women want non-pharmacological treatment. In this critical review we assess the potential use of hypnosis in reducing the frequency and intensity of hot flashes. We conclude that hypnosis is a mind-body intervention that may be of significant benefit in treatment of hot flashes and other benefits may include reduced anxiety and improved sleep. Further, hypnosis may be a preferred treatment because of the few side-effects and the preference of many women for a non-hormonal therapy.
