Can a Menopause Magnet Really Relieve Hot Flashes and Other Pesky Symptoms?
Can you really cut down on night sweats, hot flashes, and other menopause symptoms with a menopause magnet? A menopausal magnet is a small device that you wear in the front of your underwear that claims to help relieve symptoms associated with menopause, perimenopause, PMS, and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. If you are looking for looking for a natural way to help you get through these years as your body changes, consider a device that offers menopause magnetic therapy.
Understanding Menopause
Women’s reproductive hormones naturally begin to decline in our mid-30s. Fertility starts to drop because ovaries begin to make less of the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which regulate menstruation. As we continue to age, menstrual periods change. Some cycles get longer or shorter or become heavier or lighter. Some women get periods more frequently, and others will go months without menstruating. When these symptoms occur, women are entering their perimenopause phase. By their early 50s, women’s ovaries typically stop producing eggs and their periods end. When women have 12 consecutive months without periods, they are considered to be entering menopause. Women who have total hysterectomies and bilateral oophorectomies, which means both their uteruses and ovaries are removed, immediately enter menopause. Due to the abrupt hormonal changes, these women often can experience the most severe symptoms. Chemotherapy and radiation can also induce menopause.
The onset of menopause can bring a host of unpleasant and sometimes embarrassing symptoms. The most common symptoms are hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, weight gain, anxiety, depression, bloating, weight gain, low libido, and sleep troubles. Also, it is not rare for women to experience acne, hair loss, and low energy levels. To combat symptoms, such as night sweats, people can turn to prescriptions, such as venlafaxine and gabapentin. Topical creams can also be used to help with vaginal dryness. Doctors can prescribe oral hormones, often a combination of estrogen and progesterone, to replace what’s been lost.
Unfortunately, many physicians no longer routinely recommend long-term systemic hormone replacement therapy for the prevention of post-menopausal conditions due to its link to heart disease, strokes, and breast cancer. Women who are prone to these conditions or who would rather not take hormones might look into menopause relief magnets. It is a natural alternative that claims to help curb the symptoms women experience the most.
What is a menopause magnet, exactly?
A menopause magnet is a two-part device. One part attaches to the front of a woman’s underwear by magnetic force and sits directly against a woman’s pelvis. The second part is a small circular plate, which also contains a magnet, that sits outside the underwear on the lower stomach.
(Photo Credit: Amazon)
Where to Buy: $79.99, Amazon
The device uses magnetic therapy to help balance the autonomic nervous system. Not only have some clinical trials shown that magnetic therapy may help ease pain, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved transcranial magnetic stimulation, a type of therapy that involves using brief, powerful electromagnetic pulses to alter brain activity, for those who have been diagnosed with depression and haven’t responded to drug therapy.
How does a menopause magnet work?
Menopause magnets purportedly use magnetic therapy to bring the autonomic nervous system into balance, which alleviates symptoms of menopause. The autonomic nervous system is the part of the nervous system that controls bodily functions that are not consciously operated, such as breathing and sweating. It also regulates two sets of nerves: the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.
The sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for stressful or emergency situations and can trigger a person’s fight or flight response. When the sympathetic nervous system is overloaded, a person experiences greater anxiety, which can amplify pain perception and mood. The parasympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, does the opposite. The parasympathetic nervous system regulates and repairs the body. When the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system are balanced, the systems work together to regulate all of the body’s organ functions.
Menopause creates an imbalance between the two systems, leading to excessive sympathetic nervous system activity, which can cause body temperatures to rise and hearts to beat faster. Magnetic therapy aims to bring the systems back in balance by increasing parasympathetic nervous system activity and reducing sympathetic nervous system activity, and, therefore, help to reduce the most common symptoms of menopause.
(Photo Credit: Amazon)
Where to buy: $79.99, Amazon
According to a study published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, women with dysmenorrhea, or painful periods, experienced a significant reduction in pain and irritability after wearing a static magnet over their pelvic area. However, the study involved a small number of participants, so more research may be needed.
Do menopause magnets work?
The short answer: We don’t know for sure — it might be different for everyone. According to a consumer survey, women saw a 70 percent reduction in breast tenderness, incontinence, sleeping problems, fatigue, anxiety, and mood swings when they wore LadyCare magnets all day, every day for three months. The study included more than 500 women. Hot flashes, night sweats, and irritability, as well as a loss in libido and breaks in concentration, also improved by a third, according to the study. One in five women also lost an average of about 14 pounds while using the device.
Despite its many claims, LadyCare has gotten mixed reviews from users. Some have boasted that it helped reduce hot flashes and incontinence and improve their sleeping. Some, like reviewer, Jackie F., said, “I LOVE mine! I went from hourly hot flashes to a few weekly warm moments. I sleep all night now.”
Then, there is Ellen D., who found her skin was a bit itchy in the area where she was wearing the device; however, the reduction in her hot flashes was worth it. She said, “I’ve been using this for about a month, every day, all day. The only time I don’t wear it is when I’m showering. I noticed a significant difference in my hot flashes. They decreased tremendously. They’re not completely gone, but when I do get one, it’s much less severe [and it’s] tolerable.”
However, Eileen M., said the relief was short-lived. She wrote, “It worked the first week and then stopped working.”
Others didn’t find any relief and at least one reviewer, Karen E., said she got terrible headaches when she wore it. “If you have headaches leave this thing alone. I tried to return it for not doing anything and they wouldn’t take it back so I decided to wear it awhile and see if anything ever happened. The only thing that happened was horrible headaches,” she said.
The symptoms of menopause can be overwhelming. If you are looking for an alternative to prescriptions and hormone therapy, a menopause magnet may give you the boost you have been seeking. Speak with your doctor if you have any concerns about wearing a menopause magnet.
Where to buy: $79.99, Amazon
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