Gi and perimenopausal hormones issues

Your questions are really best addressed by your acupuncturist. Not knowing your diagnosis, the treatment points used, the frequency or any other relevant diagnostic information it would be impossible to say how long it would take you to respond. In the most general terms possible, 3 months of treatment would expected as a minimum to make strong headway in resolving hormonal issues. For most of our patients the stronger hormonal issues are well under control or completely resolved within 3 cycles after starting here. The digestive issues are usually quicker, but if there is a strong overlap between the two symptoms hormonally speaking it might go into the same time frame. Much of the digestive side of things can usually be moved along quicker with herbal medicine but that is something your practitioner would have to work with you on.

With regards to the ice cold abdomen and the correctness of the diagnosis I would have to know what your actual diagnosis is from your practitioners perspective to offer any opinion on whether they are on the right track or not. If you are referring to the ayurvedic saying "fire" and your acupuncturist saying one area is "cold" I would say it is very likely that from a Chinese Medicine perspective you have a mixed pattern so your practitioner might only mention parts of their overall diagnosis to you. I would either trust them and go along for probably 6-15 treatments or find someone else that you feel more comfortable with.