Integrative Care for Midlife Symptoms

Every integrative health approach for midlife symptoms faces the same test: how does a provider explain it, and what would you check before agreeing to it? Providers may use the words complementary, alternative and integrative in different ways, so ask any provider what they mean by the term. The vocabulary is set out in Complementary, Alternative, or Integrative Health: What's In a Name?, which is worth reading first.

Practices, products and terms

• Mind and Body Practices for Menopausal Symptoms: a checklist of questions to ask before you start a practice.
• Black Cohosh Safety and Evidence: what to ask about one herbal product, its safety and the evidence behind it.
• Complementary, Alternative and Integrative Terms: how to read the labels providers use.

How to read the sources

Acupuncture is one practice you may be asked to consider. Acupuncture: Effectiveness and Safety is a useful test for any claim you hear about it. For the symptom side, the in-depth page on menopausal symptoms from NCCIH covers the topic in one place.

To see how one academic health system presents the field, read UCLA Health's integrative medicine page. Then compare it with what a local provider offers and how they describe it.

Testing a provider's integrative advice at the visit

Choose one page above and read it before your appointment. At the visit, write down whether the provider can name the evidence for what they recommend, says what would show it is not working, and plans a follow-up. If any of those is missing, ask about it directly.

Each checklist here judges how a provider explains a practice, and none of them is a plan for your own symptoms.