Effects of hot temperament herbs on primary Dysmenorrhea: a systematic review

Abstract

Context: Dysmenorrhea refers to the symptom associated with painful menstruation which affects the quality of life of a large number of females who suffer from this disorder. Dysmenorrhea has two categories: primary, which occurs in the lack of pelvic pathology and secondary, from identifiable organic causes. Current treatment for primary dysmenorrhoea has a failure rate of 20% to 25% and may be contraindicated or not tolerated by some patients. Herbal medicine may be an appropriate alternative. In this article we focus on herbal medicine to identify the efficacy and safety of herbs with 'hot temperament' for primary dysmenorrhea compared with placebo and other treatments. Evidence Acquisition: This systematic review study was designed and executed in 2017. In this review, 128 studies were evaluated, only 18 of which were randomized clinical trials of herbal medicines in Iran. These trials included hot temperament herbs. Required data was gathered using electronic databases, such as Scopus, Pub med, Web of science, EM BASE and Chinese scientific journal database, also articles were evaluated according to the JADAD scale. Result: There is no negative result in the studies. Most of studies showed that the effects of Ginger are higher than other herbs in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea. All of the mentioned studies showed the higher effect of herbal medicines than Ibuprofen on the treatment of dysmenorrhea. Conclusions: The present study discusses the use of hot temperament herbs for primary dysmenorrhea. Effective herbal medicines can be used as a good alternative to treat women who do not respond well to conventional therapies or have contraindications to use of these drugs.