OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the effect of massage in the craniofacial area in menopausal women after the treatment and one month after its completion, and to measure its influence on quality of life in relation to symptoms of menopause, mental health, and body image perception. DESIGN: 50 participants with menopause, aged 45 to 65 years, participated in a single-blind randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: craniofacial massage group (CMG), who received massage treatment (n = 25), and control group (CG), without treatment (n = 25). Prior to randomization, all participants provided demographic and clinical information. Quality of life, mental health and body image perception were evaluated at three time points: at the beginning of the study, at the end, and one month after finishing the treatment. RESULTS: A repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance (RM-MANOVA) was used to determine if mean scores in the criteria differed significantly between time points within subjects. The results obtained indicate that the cranial massage techniques had a large, positive between-subjects effect on our three criteria (Wilks Lambda = 0.83, F[approximately 3,44] = 3.04, p < 0.05; partial eta = 0.17; f = 0.45) as well as a large, positive between-within subjects effect (Wilks Lambda = 0.64, F[approximately 6,41] = 3.91, p < 0.01; partial eta = 0.36; f = 0.76). In short, our treatment improved participants' mental health, partially ameliorated the decrease in scores on the Menopause Rating Scale and stopped the decrease in Body Image perception's scores. CONCLUSIONS: The craniofacial massage protocol, applied to the craniofacial sphere, constitutes a complementary and valid therapy-based therapeutic option for clinicians in the treatment of different symptoms that occur in the climacteric period.

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