For the first time acupuncture is used in Egypt to relieve women's illnesses CAIRO: Women's health problems are successfully being treated through the use of acupuncture, a recently launched alternative to hormone therapy which has proven detrimental to women's health, said one specialist. Dr Laila Abu Ismail from the clinical and chemical pathology department and head of the women's health clinic at the National Research Center in Cairo, pointed out that for the past three years acupuncture was being used to treat general health problems. "But this is the first time that treatment is focused on women's health, says Abu Ismail, who said that the initiative was first meant to treat the symptoms of menopause. "But after research and experimentation we found that the range of the treatment gones beyond that category, the specialist added. Abu Ismail, who visited China respectively in 2003 and 2005 to attend courses on acupuncture, is now in charge of carrying these treatments. "More and more women are flooding in because the procedure has proven very successful. At the center the treatment is subsidized and this is why it is less costly. But one reason why it is expensive in the first place is that the needles are imported and for hygienic considerations they are not reused. Abu Ismail explains that menopause is not an organic illness. It is a stage in each woman's life that is marked by disorders resulting from a change in the level of estrogen that is secreted during ovulation. "With age the ovaries function less and so the estrogen level decreases, causing symptoms like overweight, insomnia, depression, anxiety, disturbances in the menstrual cycle that could lead to bleeding and other bone-related problems. Abu Ismail said women commonly used compensatory estrogen and progesterone hormones to address menopausal symptoms, and deal with calcium deficiency. "When using acupuncture we help the body mechanism to secrete serotonine, a substance that helps women overcome these symptoms, she said. "The procedure has no side effects, as opposed to replacement hormones which increase the incidence of cardiac arrest, breast and womb cancer, added Abu Ismail. She also highlighted the benefit of acupuncture in helping women with difficult pregnancies or post-natal depression. "For the past few weeks we have also been successfully giving the treatment to boost cases requiring fertility, revealed Abu Ismail. Statistics in Europe and the US have shown that acupuncture has had a 60 percent success rate in helping women get pregnant. It was found to contribute in strengthening the womb by securing it the required blood, as well as regulating ovulation and hormone secretion. "We are now testing the effect of acupuncture on Egyptian women, says Abu Ismail. "The treatment has been successful in some cases. It is a viable complementary remedy. But we can't document the results unless the treatment is administered to a larger sample.
