Women suffering from hot flashes associated with menopause may have another alternative to hormone replacement therapy.

Leslie, a busy businesswoman in Vancouver, found her hot flashes and sleep deprivation debilitating until she finally tried acupuncture.

"I knew I didn't want to take hormone therapy, but hot flashes and night sweats were waking me up almost every night, and I was finding it really hard to function during the day."

"After my treatment with acupuncture I started feeling better, and after a few weeks of acupuncture treatments and Chinese herbal therapy, I noticed major relief. The number of hot flashes decreased dramatically, and I was actually sleeping through the night."

One study, conducted by the Ankara Training and Research Hospital in Ankara, Turkey, documented similar outcomes with acupuncture. It included 53 postmenopausal women. Twenty-seven of the women received traditional Chinese acupuncture for 20 minutes, twice a week for 10 weeks. The rest believed they were given acupuncture treatment, but the needles didn't actually penetrate their skin. The women who received real acupuncture showed significant drops in the severity of their hot flashes.

The result of another study, presented by the National Research Center in Alternative and Complementary Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway, showed "significant reduction in the severity and frequency of hot flushes in postmenopausal women undergoing a 12 week course of acupuncture."

Researchers are still trying to understand how this 2000-year-old treatment affects menopausal symptoms.

According to Lorne Brown, clinical director of Acubalance Wellness Centre in Vancouver, "Studies have shown that acupuncture appears to bring hormones into balance and reduce anxiety through a process called homeostatic regulation: buffering hormonal disturbance and stimulating feel-good endorphins."

Dr. Jerilynn Prior, UBC professor of endocrinology, author and world expert on women's hormones, states: "This research supports a large body of anecdotal evidence that acupuncture can safely relieve hot flushes and night sweats–it may ‘work' by decreasing the stress responses that we know make hot flushes worse."

For Leslie, acupuncture has allowed her to resume her life. "Not only am I getting relief from hot flashes and the overwhelming fatigue and exhaustion, but I'm so glad to have the option of a safe, effective treatment for my menopause symptoms that actually improves my overall health."

Terje Alraek of the University of Tromsø says in a press statement: "After menopause, 10% – 20% of all women have nearly intolerable hot flushes. The promising results of the Acuflash study suggest that acupuncture can help."

The 2,000-year-old Chinese tradition has already become popular in the West for the reduction of symptoms related to arthritis, back, neck, knee and shoulder pain, and even infertility.