Second Spring: A TCM Perspective on Perimenopause and Menopause

Perimenopause and menopause are often spoken about in the West through a lens of disruption: hot flushes, mood changes, broken sleep, heavier or irregular periods, and a sense that the body has become unpredictable. Many women move into this stage with a mix of confusion and frustration, especially when symptoms begin to affect daily life, energy, and how you feel emotionally. Women often tell me they feel dismissed or reassured that their bloods are “normal,” even though nothing about their daily experience feels normal.

Traditional Chinese Medicine offers a different way of understanding this shift. In TCM, this transition is known as Second Spring. In China it is a highly respected, even celebrated, stage of life that represents a move toward clarity, steadiness, and renewed focus. It offers a perspective that is rooted in continuity, self-knowledge, and a more grounded way of being. For us women in the West, this perspective feels refreshing because it reframes this stage as a natural transition rather than something to be feared or pathologised. Growing evidence shows that acupuncture can play an important role in reducing symptoms and improving overall wellbeing.

Understanding What This Stage Feels Like

Symptoms in perimenopause vary widely. For some, it’s a slight change in sleep or concentration; for others, it includes hot flushes, emotional swings, restlessness, or a sudden change in how the body responds to stress. It is common to feel “not quite yourself,” even when nothing dramatic appears on the outside. The lack of recognition in the Western medical system often adds to the strain, leaving many women to navigate these changes without the understanding or support they deserve.

How Acupuncture Helps

Acupuncture supports the body as it adapts to this new rhythm. It helps steady the hormonal fluctuations that sit behind many of the changes women feel at this stage, including hot flushes, disrupted sleep, and shifts in mood or energy. It also calms an overactive stress response, which is often behind broken sleep, irritability, and that familiar tired-but-wired feeling. By supporting temperature regulation, acupuncture can reduce the intensity and frequency of hot flushes. It promotes deeper, more restorative sleep, which has a direct effect on clarity, energy, and steadiness during the day.

Many women also carry tension in the shoulders, chest, jaw, abdomen, and lower back without realising it. Acupuncture helps the body release these patterns so everything feels less tight and reactive. The overall effect is a calmer nervous system, steadier hormonal balance, and a greater sense of being able to manage daily demands with more ease.

Treatment is always individual. If sleep is the main challenge, I focus there. If heat, anxiety, low energy, or overstimulation are more dominant, treatment adjusts accordingly. Acupuncture works on its own or safely alongside HRT and supplements, making it easy to integrate into the support you already have.

Evidence-Based Support

Research into acupuncture for perimenopause and menopause has grown significantly. Studies show improvements in hot flushes, night sweats, sleep quality, anxiety, mood, and overall wellbeing.

Acupuncture is also recognised in several national clinical guidelines. Health authorities in the UK, Australia, and Scandinavia include acupuncture as a supportive therapy for menopausal symptoms, particularly for sleep disturbances and vasomotor symptoms such as hot flushes and night sweats. This reflects a meaningful shift in mainstream healthcare toward more integrated, patient-centred menopause support, with acupuncture seen as a safe option that fits well alongside conventional treatment, including HRT.

Moving Through Second Spring With Support

Daily responsibilities don’t pause during perimenopause. Work, family, and the demands of everyday life continue, even when sleep is light or emotions feel close to the surface. Having support during this stage can make these pressures more manageable. When symptoms soften and your body feels more settled, there is more space to feel like yourself again.

Second Spring marks a transition into a phase that can feel clearer, more grounded, and more aligned with who you are now. Many women find that boundaries become clearer, priorities sharpen, and there is a stronger sense of what genuinely supports them. As symptoms ease, this phase feels far more centred and empowering than the narrative we’re given in the West.

If you’d like support through this stage, acupuncture can help you feel steadier and more at home in yourself. You’re welcome to book an acupuncture session online if you’d like tailored support — I’d be happy to help.

Supporting Fertility and Hormonal Balance with Acupuncture

A Gentle and Natural Approach to Women’s Health

Many women experience hormonal changes or menstrual symptoms that affect how they feel day to day. Irregular or painful periods, premenstrual tension, fatigue, or difficulties conceiving can be frustrating, especially when tests come back “normal” but you still don’t feel right.

At Serene Acupuncture Cork, I use Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to help women bring their bodies back into balance. Acupuncture offers a calm, restorative space where your body can reset its natural rhythm, improve circulation, and reduce stress. It’s a gentle, holistic way to support fertility and hormonal health at any stage of life.

Understanding Balance and Hormones

In Chinese medicine, the menstrual cycle reflects the harmony of the whole body. When energy (what we call Qì) and circulation are flowing well, the cycle is usually regular, moods are stable, and conception is more likely.

However, modern life can easily disrupt that balance. Stress, overwork, poor sleep, or emotional strain can all affect how energy moves through the body. Over time, this may show up as irregular cycles, PMS, painful periods, or trouble conceiving.

Supporting hormonal balance isn’t just about one organ or hormone, it’s about helping your body communicate properly again so that each system works in sync.

How Acupuncture Can Help Fertility

Research increasingly confirms what Chinese medicine has understood for centuries: acupuncture can improve fertility by influencing key physiological processes.
Regular treatment can:

• Regulate the menstrual cycle and promote ovulation

• Improve blood flow to the uterus and ovaries

• Reduce stress hormones and support relaxation

• Enhance the quality of the endometrial lining

• Support emotional balance throughout the fertility journey

Acupuncture can be used on its own or alongside conventional fertility treatments such as IVF or IUI. Many women find that it helps them feel calmer, sleep better, and reconnect with their bodies during a time that can otherwise feel clinical or overwhelming.

More Than Fertility

Hormonal changes don’t only affect women trying to conceive. Many women come for acupuncture to help with PMS, painful periods, PCOS, endometriosis, or perimenopause.

Acupuncture treatment is always individualised. Rather than treating a diagnosis or label, the focus is on understanding the unique pattern of imbalance within each client. During consultation, I listen carefully to your health history, cycle patterns, energy levels, sleep, emotions, and lifestyle. This helps identify which organ systems need support and guides the selection of acupuncture points. Together, we create a plan that supports you physically and emotionally.

The Emotional Side of Hormonal Health

Trying to conceive can bring emotional highs and lows. Feelings of hope, disappointment, pressure, or frustration are common. In Chinese medicine, emotional well-being is inseparable from physical health; our emotions directly affect the body. When stress or anxiety builds up, it can disrupt circulation, sleep, and hormone regulation.

Acupuncture gently calms and steadies this flow, easing anxiety, improving sleep, and restoring a sense of inner stability. Clients often describe leaving a session feeling lighter, more centred, and reconnected to themselves.

Working Together

I see acupuncture as a partnership: your body has incredible intelligence, and my role is to support its natural ability to heal and rebalance.

Treatments are safe to combine with conventional medicine or fertility care, and I often work alongside GPs or specialists as part of an integrated approach.

Whether you are preparing for conception, navigating hormonal changes, or simply wanting to feel more balanced, acupuncture offers a gentle, restorative path forward.

When to Begin

If you are planning to conceive, it’s ideal to start acupuncture a few months beforehand to allow your cycle to stabilise and your body to feel nourished. But it’s never too late to start. Treatment can be helpful at any stage, including during assisted fertility or the transition through perimenopause.

Every Woman’s Journey is Unique

Every woman’s story is unique. Acupuncture meets you exactly where you are, helping to create the right internal conditions for balance, vitality, and wellbeing , whatever your personal goal may be.

If you’d like to explore how acupuncture can support your fertility or hormonal health, you’re very welcome to book a consultation at Serene Acupuncture Cork.

Balance is possible… sometimes it just needs the right support.