Most postmenopausal women experience vaginal dryness, itching, irritation or painful intercourse but few bring them up to their physicians and few physicians ask about them so they go untreated, according to a recent survey. The situation is different in Oriental medicine. Oriental medicine doctors usually ask detail questions about such signs and symptoms not only because they are considered important to treat but especially because they have diagnostic value: they reflect deeper constitutional or pathological states of Yin deficiency, wind, heat, dryness,damp or blood stagnation. Oriental medicine patients are also more attuned to the importance of subjectively felt symptoms and so are less hesitant to talk about them. This is good because acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine have very effective treatments for these problems and hormone therapy can be avoided.