Younger women taking tamoxifen for either breast cancer prevention or adjuvant treatment are hurled into menopause sooner than Mother Nature usually intends. You start taking tamoxifen, and suddenly you're in the midst of unpleasant symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness --not quite the gradual run-up to natural menopause you'd imagined.

This is because tamoxifen is designed to stop the body from producing estrogen. But the declining estrogen levels can lead to severe hot flashes, so severe they may even prompt some of us to stop taking such medications, even though we are well aware that discontinuing them may increase the risk of breast cancer. This is an indication of just how miserable some women can feel during menopause.

If you are one of these women, a new option for relief that you may not have considered is acupuncture. Recent studies have confirmed that women using this form of ancient Chinese medicine had as much as a 50 percent reduction in the number of their "personal summers and power surges." The best news is that acupuncture also reduced night sweats, a common cause of insomnia, and when your partner opts to sleep in another bed, lonely nights.

So, if you're suffering from this side effect of tamoxifen treatment, consider trying acupressure. This popular complimentary therapy will, I hope, allow you to sleep better, feel better during the day, and better endure hormonal therapy so that you reap the benefits that these drugs are intended to provide.