Chinese Herbal Medicine Could Alleviate Symptoms of Endometriosis

Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) may relieve symptoms during the treatment of endometriosis, according to a study by the University of Southampton in the UK which is published in the journal Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

The researchers found that women had comparable benefits after laparoscopic surgery and had fewer side effects when taking Chinese herbs compared with conventional medical treatments.

Endometriosis is a gynecological condition that affects one in six women of reproductive age. It can cause pelvic pain, irregular and painful periods and infertility. Surgical treatments do not always lead to a long-term improvement in symptoms and medication can have side effects like flushing, acne and weight gain.

The researchers conducted a review of studies on Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of endometriosis and included two studies in this review focused on 158 women’s.

In one investigation, Chinese herbs provide relief of symptoms comparable to the hormone drug gestrinone, but with fewer side effects. In the other trial, Chinese herbs were more effective than hormone drug danazol and also resulted in fewer side effects.

Explains Andrew Flower, director of the study, “these findings suggest that Chinese herbs might be as effective as certain drug treatments but currently do not have enough evidence to generalize the results.”

The researchers considered 110 studies originally included in the review but the majority had poor methodological quality and were excluded. The authors emphasize the need for Chinese researchers to adopt more rigorous methods in their essays.

Flower concludes that the low quality of information on testing confuses and undermines the research on Chinese medicinal herbs.