Relieving Hot Flashes & Night Sweats With Hypnosis: What Research & Experience Show

25 Oct Relieving Hot Flashes & Night Sweats With Hypnosis: What Research & Experience Show

Posted at 17:36h in Uncategorized by admin

What are the two most common symptoms of menopause and perimenopause? You guessed it –– hot flashes and night sweats. If you guessed it, you’re probably already experiencing them to some degree.

Before we dive into what hot flashes are, what causes them, and how hypnosis can help hot flashes, I want to define some terms. I also want to peel back a few layers that tend to reduce menstruation and this major transition in a woman’s life to nothing more than a bothersome shift in hormones to be minimized or managed and consider how we can nurture this process with love and acceptance.

What Are Menopause & Perimenopause?

Menopause is quite simply the ceasing of menstruation as the ovaries makes less or the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Perimenopause is the time leading up to menopause. For most women, perimenopause begins sometime during the forties. Early symptoms are irregular periods, insomnia, and mood swings. Hot flashes and night sweats are the most common indicators and may occur for several years until menopause is complete.

A Woman’s Most Significant Transition

So, now we know what perimenopause and menopause signal. However, their deeper meaning as it concerns a woman’s intimate experience with herself is somewhat arcane and it deserves some attention.

As a hypnotist –– and a woman–– I have personally experienced the benefits of hypnosis for menopause for the whole range of biological symptoms but also how it specifically relieves hot flashes and night sweats. Diving deeper, I’ve seen how addressing these symptoms gets at some of the deeper, more psychological issues at play.

Any woman in her forties is anticipating the onset of menopause –– usually not with any optimism. After what feels like a lifetime spent enduring the battles of her monthly cycle, the “reward” of ceasing that regular flow is a handbasket of even more challenging symptoms, some familiar, some entirely new.

I don’t want to paint a doom and gloom picture about women’s menstruation. The truth is that it’s not all bad; it just depends on how you look at it. For one, it’s the body’s natural detoxification process as the uterine lining sheds. Menstruation also acts as an emotional detox too. It can indicate possible health issues or illness early on. It can intensify your sexual experience. It can even bring you closer to your core self –– the one that often remains deeply hidden in the face of societal expectations.

PMDD therapist, Natalie Ryan, describes it well:

“PMS drops you deep into your own being, and your own truth explodes forth. Whatever you have been successful at burying or denying to yourself bursts forth at this time of the month.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t know a single woman who doesn’t feel incredibly vulnerable in the days leading up to her period. And unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to improve as we age; we just get used to it… kind of. We also find better ways to manage it. We get more rest. We figure out the right foods to eat at different phases of the cycle. We identify what triggers emotional outbursts or breakdowns. We know when to be alone and how to ask for support.

Indeed, that’s some serious investigative work! It’s not easy, and it takes a lifetime to learn. By the time we have it figured out, perimenopause arrives.

But here’s the thing –– all those tools we collected over the years still apply during perimenopause –– tenfold, even –– but sticking to them becomes even more challenging. That’s why an external interventions like hypnosis can be a game-changer.

Finding Relief With Hypnosis

First of all, what is a hot flash and what causes it?

WebMD describes it like this:

“…A sudden feeling of heat and sometimes a red, flushed face and sweating. We don’t know exactly what causes them, but they may be related to changes in circulation. Hot flashes start when blood vessels near the skin’s surface widen to cool off, making you break out in a sweat. Some women have a rapid heart rate or chills, too” (1).

And when these happen at night while you’re asleep, they’re called night sweats.

Not knowing what causes hot flashes makes it challenging to know what to do about them. That’s why natural, external interventions like hyponosis can make such a difference.

There’s a ton of research citing the proven benefits of hypnotherapy for reducing hot flashes before, during, and even after menopause. For example, researchers in Baylor University, Texas performed a 12-week controlled study on the effects of hypnosis on menopausal women experiencing hot flashes. Women who experienced hypnosis experienced 75% fewer hot flashes compared with women in the control group who reported only 13% fewer hot flashes (2).

So, how does hypnosis work to relieve hot flashes and night sweats?

Hypnotherapy is a gentle, non intrusive approach that harnesses the power of the subconscious mind to help a woman release suppressed emotions and bring about self-healing.

Here, Natalie Ryan’s perspective on PMS becomes even more significant. If we look at perimenopause and menopause like continuous PMS, the need to create space for recognition and release of emotion is even more critical, and hypnosis is an ideal therapy for supporting that process.

How does emotional release help relieve physical symptoms?

As the hormones shift, emotions such as frustration, anger, rage, and feeling out of control may intensify. If you investigate their physical manifestation in the body, you may notice that they actually feel hot and fiery, even piercing in quality. It’s no surprise then that hot flashes can be interpreted as the body’s need to release this hot, fiery energy.

Hypnosis may also use imagery to help calm the body, further leading to a decrease in physiological symptoms.

If you’re interested in learning more about hypnosis for hot flashes and night sweats, please reach out to me for a free consultation. I’m located in Durham Region, serving clients in Clarington and surrounding areas. I look forward to hearing from you.

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