Reflexology and Menopause: Could It Help?

My interest in reflexology and menopause is personal.

A few years ago, I went through treatment for breast cancer. When my treatment finished, my hormone levels dropped and, seemingly out of nowhere, I began experiencing symptoms of perimenopause.

What surprised me most wasn’t hot flushes or night sweats. In fact, I didn’t experience many of the symptoms that are most commonly associated with menopause.

What I noticed was something much harder to describe.

I felt like a different person.

I lost interest in things I would normally enjoy. I felt emotionally flat. I noticed that I wasn’t adapting to stress or navigating difficult situations in the way I normally would. Resilience and the ability to handle complexity had always felt like something of a superpower. Suddenly, they didn’t feel quite so accessible.

If I hadn’t experienced it myself, I think I would have underestimated how profoundly hormonal change can affect how you feel, think and function.

Eventually, I started HRT. Because of my previous breast cancer, this required careful medical consideration, but in my particular circumstances it was an option.

My interest in reflexology isn’t about suggesting that it could replace HRT or medical care. It’s about exploring whether it might provide another layer of support alongside whatever combination of medical and non-medical approaches an individual woman chooses.

What does the research suggest?

There is a growing, although still relatively small, body of research exploring whether reflexology can help women experiencing menopause.

The findings are encouraging, although they are not yet strong enough to say that reflexology has been proven to treat menopausal symptoms.

One of the more substantial studies involved 120 women aged 40–60. Participants received either foot reflexology or nonspecific foot massage. Following the intervention, women receiving reflexology had significantly lower scores for hot flushes, sweating and night sweats, with improvements also seen in aspects of menopause-related quality of life (Gozuyesil & Baser, 2016).

Sleep is another area where the findings are interesting. A randomised controlled trial involving 72 postmenopausal women found that 12 sessions of reflexology were associated with significant improvements in overall sleep quality and reductions in fatigue compared with the control group (Zengin Aydın & Yiğitalp, 2021).

An earlier study involving 100 menopausal women also reported a significant reduction in sleep disturbance following a 21-day programme of reflexology.

There is also some evidence that reflexology may influence the experience of stress and anxiety more broadly. In a pilot study of 30 healthy adults, McVicar and colleagues found a significant reduction in state anxiety and cardiovascular activity following reflexology. Interestingly, however, salivary cortisol did not change significantly. This is a useful reminder that stress is complex and that a change in how we feel does not necessarily mean every physiological marker will change in the same way (McVicar et al., 2007).

More recently, a 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis brought together eight studies of reflexology and menopause, with six included in the statistical analysis. It found a significant overall reduction in menopausal symptoms and fatigue following reflexology. However, the researchers rated the certainty of the evidence as low for menopausal symptoms and very low for fatigue, anxiety and depression. They concluded that further, better-designed research is needed (Maghalian et al., 2025).

So the message from the research is not “reflexology works.”

It is more nuanced:

There are repeated signals of potential benefit across several areas of the menopause experience — particularly vasomotor symptoms, sleep, fatigue and aspects of wellbeing — but the evidence base is still too limited to draw firm conclusions.

Why is more research needed?

Researching reflexology isn’t straightforward.

Unlike a pharmaceutical intervention, reflexology is a complex, hands-on experience. The treatment involves not only the physical intervention itself, but also the practitioner, pressure of touch, the therapeutic relationship, the environment, expectations and the individual receiving treatment.

It is difficult to standardise all of these variables, and difficult to create a truly convincing control intervention for something involving therapeutic touch.

This doesn’t make rigorous research impossible. It means that it requires thoughtful study design, sufficient participants and appropriate outcome measures.

Complementary therapies have also historically had a much smaller research base and investment than conventional medical interventions.

For now, I think the fairest conclusion is that the evidence is promising, but not yet conclusive.

In summary

The research is promising, but not yet conclusive. What interests me is not whether reflexology can treat or cure menopause — it cannot — but whether it might help women manage some of the symptoms they are experiencing and, in doing so, improve their quality of life.

My own experience is what prompted my interest in this area. I now want to explore the question further through my own small-scale research, looking at whether a course of personalised reflexology can make a meaningful difference to how women experience and manage their menopause symptoms.

Could regular reflexology help women feel better supported through menopause — not by changing menopause itself, but by helping them manage some of what they are experiencing?

That’s a question I’m interested in exploring.

Research referenced

Gozuyesil, E. & Baser, M. (2016). The effect of foot reflexology applied to women aged between 40 and 60 on vasomotor complaints and quality of life. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 24, 78–85.

Zengin Aydın, L. & Yiğitalp, G. (2021). The effect of reflexology on sleep quality and fatigue in postmenopausal women: A randomized controlled trial. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 43, 101281.

The effects of Reflexology on sleep disorder in menopausal women (2012). Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, 242–246.

McVicar, A. J. et al. (2007). Evaluation of anxiety, salivary cortisol and melatonin secretion following reflexology treatment: A pilot study in healthy individuals. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 13(3), 137–145.

Maghalian, M. et al. (2025). Foot Reflexology for Managing Menopausal Symptoms in Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Current Women’s Health Reviews, 21(5).