Effect of Acupressure on Early Complications of Menopause in Women Referring to Selected Health Care Centers

Background: Menopausal period is accompanied by numerous disorders and complications. Nowadays, hormone therapy is the most effective existing method to treat these complications, but many women cannot undergo that due to the known potentiality of risk. So, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of acupressure on early complications of menopause.

Materials and methods: This is a blind random clinical trial conducted on 70 menopaused women referring to selected health care centers in Tehran who were qualified to enter the study. The subjects were randomly assigned to study (wearing a special acupressure wrist brace, three times a week for 15 min, in both bands on Shenmen and Sanyinjiao acupoints, in addition to receiving conventional menopausal care) and placebo (wearing a special acupressure wrist brace, three times a week for 15 min, but in a counter wise way, in addition to receiving conventional menopausal care) groups. Length of intervention was 4 weeks. Early complications of menopause were evaluated before intervention and 2 and 4 weeks after intervention in both groups. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistical methods.

Results: The findings revealed a significant reduction in the number and severity of hot flashes, the number of night sweats, and state-trait anxiety severity (P < 0.001), but with regard to the severity of night sweats and trait anxiety, there was no significant difference between groups.

Conclusions: With regard to the obtained results on the effect of acupressure on reduction of early menopausal complications, acupressure along with conventional menopausal care is suggested as one of the complementary medicine methods to improve the complications of this period.