An Overview of Systematic Reviews of Using Chinese Medicine to Treat Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Wang L, Liang R, Tang Q, Zhu L · Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine · 2021 May 28

DOI 10.1155/2021/9935536

Objective

This review sought to evaluate the strength and validity of the existing evidence for the use of Chinese medicine for the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Conclusions

At present, only low-quality evidence is available to suggest that combined treatment with Chinese and Western medicine is superior to Western medicine alone in improving the pregnancy rate, ovulation rate, serum hormone levels, and adverse effects of patients with PCOS. Future clinical trials and reviews of higher quality are recommended to clarify the efficacy of Chinese medicine and provide more accurate evidence.

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Insights

A total of 18 publications were included, all indicating improved PCOS symptoms with Chinese medicine compared to control groups.

The study's results are presented in this section. The initial search yielded 312 relevant articles, out of which 163 were screened after removing duplicates. These articles were primarily in Chinese (122) and English (35). Eventually, 18 articles were included in the study, all of which were written in Chinese. The characteristics of these included studies were analyzed, revealing that 14 were journal articles and four were theses. None of the studies were registered in databases like Cochrane Library or PROSPERO. The quality evaluation of the included systematic reviews was performed using AMSTAR2 and GRADE tools. The AMSTAR2 assessment indicated varying completeness in reporting criteria, with overall low credibility of the included systematic reviews. The quality-of-evidence ratings for outcome indicators were mostly moderate, low, or very low due to research limitations, biases, and inadequate blinding in reviews involving randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The primary outcome indicators, including pregnancy rate, ovulation rate, clinical efficiency, hormone levels, and adverse reactions, were evaluated across various reviews. The study concluded that current evidence doesn't strongly support the combined use of Chinese and Western medicine for treating PCOS. The study highlights the need for higher quality clinical trials and systematic reviews to improve the credibility and reliability of evidence in this field.