Hypnosis for Menopause: Real Or Scam?

Wendy Lapidus-Saltz August 01, 2008

If someone says he or she can stop menopause, and turn the clock back 20 years, don't buy it. I know it's tempting. And maybe a decade from now it will be possible, or even sooner.

But not just yet - no matter whether the product on offer is a drug, vitamin supplement, or hypnosis session.

On the other hand, don't be too surprised if a hypnotist, whose clients are primarily women forty and up, mentions that hypnosis can relieve or alleviate many symptoms of menopause, both physical and emotional.

It's true - if we are speaking about a reputable, competent hypnotist (or hypnotherapist) with a deep understanding of hypnotism, women, and menopause itself.

Because, as you know from experience, your mind can absolutely affect your body, creating positive or negative results. That mind-body connection is as strong as the mind is powerful, and as convincing (especially to the person thinking the thoughts).

Ever hear that your friend's dog has masses of fleas and recall that you spent a few hours at that friend's house yesterday, and upon thinking these thoughts, immediately begin to itch wildly?

Ever play hooky from school with a fake stomach-ache - only to start feeling achy or nauseous an hour or so later after telling Mom you were sick?

The good news is that just as your subconscious mind can create feelings of illness or pain, it can also help relieve them.

Patients have endured injections without a single zing of pain, and even undergone full surgeries without anaesthesia. In April of 2008, a UK hypnotherapist named Alex Lenkei hypnotized himself to go through an 83-minute arm surgery without anaesthesia, as reported in the Daily Mail, online version.

He could hear the surgeons talking and even asked them nonchalantly how things were going!

The notion of successful surgery with only the patient's mind to create a numbing sensation can help you understand how the mind can alleviate many uncomfortable menopausal symptoms with hypnotism.

Which menopausal symptoms can hypnosis allay? My clients have reported improvements in all of these:

1 - Hot flashes. Hypnotists experienced in menopausal concerns can help you with hot flashes in two ways: by teaching you to turn down the heat sensation on demand, and by helping you reduce the stress that is partly culpable in creating the flash (or flush).

2 - Negative mindset about the physical and emotional elements of menopause and aging.

3 - Feelings of sadness, moodiness, lowered sense of self worth.

4 - Lowered or nonexistent sex drive. Hypnosis is a great help in increasing feelings of desire and also attractiveness if the woman is willing. If her relationship is deeply unsatisfactory in other ways, she may truly not be willing to "want to want" sex with her partner.

Those issues will need to be dealt with first. Once resolved, however, hypnotism can spice up a couple's sex life with many positive side effects.

5 - Belief that she is no longer attractive or worthy of love, affection, or attention.

6 - Weight gain. In the first place, menopause need not cause weight gain at all. Any weight-creeping can be alleviated with exercise if caught immediately. And hypnosis is often a powerful partner in a weight-loss program for weight watchers of any gender or age.

Hypnosis can serve as a strong motivator of exercise, a very strong factor in how easily, quickly and permanently weight can be lost.

7 - Stress. In and of itself, stress is a great problem in contemporary life. We have accepted it as a given, aggrandized it ("I am so stressed because I am the only one who can do my job!")

8 - And there are probably others. If a symptom is connected to the way one is thinking about herself or her circumstances, and taking a relentless hopeless view, hypnotism can be of help. It depends largely on the client's willingness to allow the possibility and participate fully and openly, even if not thoroughly convinced.

Naturally, results vary, hypnotherapists should be thought of as adjunctive help and not as replacements for medical doctors, and a client's own attitude and participation level affects results.

More than three decades ago in the U.S., a popular TV commercial carried the theme line "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." That same thought applies here.

The mind, conscious and especially subconscious, functions as interpreter of experience and decision maker (among other roles). Use it to create unlimited potential for yourself in the areas of your own choosing, but please don't waste it.

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