An interventional study of Acupuncture and Acupuncture-Acupressure in Hot Flashes and Menopause Surgical, sponsored by Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in Israel. Open to female participants aged 25 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-04-29.
Sponsored by Shaare Zedek Medical Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
Risk-reducing surgery with salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) is the standard recommended treatment for all female carriers of BRCA genes 1 and 2. The post-surgical menopause induced is invariably accompanied by hot flashes and other symptoms, which can severely impair quality of life and function. Hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) is the standard conventional treatment for these symptoms, though these drugs do not always provide adequate relief and many patients either cannot receive them due to a diagnosis of breast cancer or hypercoagulable state; or are unwilling to take them due to their concern about the associated increased risk for developing hormone-induced breast cancer.
Acupuncture and acupressure have been researched extensively and shown to be both safe and effective in reducing hot flashes in post-menopausal patients and in those with breast cancer receiving anti-hormonal drugs.
The present study will examine the effectiveness of acupuncture, with/without self-acupressure, on 200 post- RRSO patients who suffer from at least 5 hot flashes per day, including those treated with HRT. All participants will receive 8 weekly treatments with acupuncture, and then randomly assigned to receive (or not) self-administered acupressure, to be performed daily at home. The response to the study interventions will be assessed using daily Hot Flash Scores, the Menopause Specific Quality of Life (MenQoL) and Measure Yourself Concerns and Wellbeing (MYCAW) questionnaires (at baseline; at the end of the 8-week intervention; and at 16 weeks). The safety of the study treatments will be assessed throughout.
339 studies on the registry are indexed under Hot Flashes; 56 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 200 is above the median of 90 across 306 interventional studies indexed under Hot Flashes.
Browse Hot Flashes studies →Shaare Zedek Medical Center is the lead sponsor of 195 studies on the registry; 19 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Acupuncture treatments will take place at a frequency of once per week, with each session lasting between 30 to 45 minutes. At each session patients will be re-assessed by the study acupuncturist, with acupuncture points individualized in accordance with the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. At the same time, acupuncturists will include a set group of acupuncture points which have been used in the research of hot flashes: HT-6, Kid-3, Liv-3, SP-6.
Other: Acupuncture · Other: Acupuncture-Acupressure
Patients randomly allocated to the acupuncture-acupressure arm of the study will first be treated by the study acupuncturist in accordance with the protocol described in the Acupuncture arm of the study. At the end of the first session, patients in this group will be taught by the study acupuncturist to self-treat at home with acupressure, on the acupressure points PC-7, ST-36, SP-9. Self-acupressure sessions will last between 3-5 minutes each, and will take place 3-4 times each day. At subsequent acupuncture treatments patients will receive reinforcement and guidance to ensure the fidelity of the self-acupuncture treatments
Other: Acupuncture · Other: Acupuncture-Acupressure
Weekly acupuncture treatments, for 8 weeks (8 treatments)
Weekly acupuncture, for 8 weeks, with daily self-acupressure by the patient at home.
Hot Flash Score - baseline to 8 weeks
Hot Flash Score will be calculated by the following equation: Mean number daily hot flashes X mean severity of symptoms (Hot flash severity: 1 - mild; 2 - moderate; 3 - severe)
Time frame: From baseline (at study recruitment) to end of intervention (8 weeks)
Hot Flash Score - 8 to 16 weeks
Hot Flash Score will be calculated by the following equation: Mean number daily hot flashes X mean severity of symptoms (Hot flash severity: 1 - mild; 2 - moderate; 3 - severe)
Time frame: From end of study intervention (at 8 weeks) to end of post-intervention period (16 weeks)
Menopause Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MenQOL)
The MenQoL study tool assesses health-related quality of life in the immediate postmenopausal period. The tool contains 29 items from four menopausal symptom domains, as experienced over the last month: vasomotor, psychosocial, physical, and sexual. Means are computed for each subscale by dividing the sum of the items in the domain by the number of items within that domain; the final score ranges from 1 to 8.41 For the present study, the questionnaire was translated from English into Hebrew by 2 fully bilingual medical professionals, and then back-translated by 2 other fully bilingual medical professionals, in accordance with acceptable measurement translation methods.
Time frame: Baseline; End of intervention (8 weeks); Post-treatment follow-up (16 weeks)
Measure Yourself Concerns and Wellbeing (MYCAW)
The MYCAW (Appendix 2) asks respondents at baseline to list their two main concerns, scoring their severity from a range of 0 (of no concern) to 6 (of greatest concern). Patients are then asked to score the quality of their present level of well-being, from a score of 0 ("as good as it could be") to 6 ("as bad as it could be"). At the follow-up completion of the tool patients are asked once again to score the two primary concerns (listed at baseline), as well as their current perceived level of wellbeing. The follow-up questionnaire then asks respondents to answer two open-ended questions: the first about "other issues related to your health"; and the second, "what has been the most important aspect (of the treatment program) for you?".
Time frame: Baseline; End of intervention (8 weeks); Post-treatment follow-up (16 weeks)
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Apr 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.