Chinese herbal medicine for primary dysmenorrhoea : a systematic review

Background: Conventional treatment for primary dysmenorrhoea has a failure rate of 20% to 25% and may be contraindicated or not tolerated by some women. Chinese herbal medicine may be a suitable alternative. Objectives: To determine the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine for primary dysmenorrhoea when compared with placebo, no treatment, and other treatment. Main results: Thirty-nine randomised controlled trials involving a total of 3475 women were included in the review. A number of the trials were of small sample size and poor methodological quality. Results for Chinese herbal medicine compared to placebo were unclear as data could not be combined (3 RCTs). Chinese herbal medicine resulted in significant improvements in pain relief (14 RCTs; RR 1.99, 95% CI 1.52 to 2.60), overall symptoms (6 RCTs; RR 2.17, 95% CI 1.73 to 2.73) and use of additional medication (2 RCTs; RR 1.58, 95% CI 1.30 to 1.93) when compared to use of pharmaceutical drugs. Self-designed Chinese herbal formulae resulted in significant improvements in pain relief (18 RCTs; RR 2.06, 95% CI 1.80 to 2.36), overall symptoms (14 RCTs; RR 1.99, 95% CI 1.65 to 2.40) and use of additional medication (5 RCTs; RR 1.58, 95% CI 1.34 to 1.87) after up to three months of follow-up when compared to commonly used Chinese herbal health products. Chinese herbal medicine also resulted in better pain relief than acupuncture (2 RCTs; RR 1.75, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.82) and heat compression (1 RCT; RR 2.08, 95% CI 2.06 to 499.18). Reviewers' conclusions: The review found promising evidence supporting the use of Chinese herbal medicine for primary dysmenorrhoea; however, results are limited by the poor methodological quality of the included trials.