Several treatments are available for endometriosis –the most common being laproscopic surgery and medications. However, surgery does always guarantee a complete cure; drugs, on the other hand, may have unpleasant side effects—acne, hot flushes and weight gain being a few of them. There was news doing the rounds in the scientific circles that Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) had an impressionable effect on patients suffering from endometriosis and that these herbs have less side effects. The stake was too good - which led the Cochrane review researchers to conduct systematic study on the effect of Chinese herbs on endometriosis patients. Two trial studies were conducted —one trial proved that the symptomatic relief provided by CHM was comparable to that provided by the hormonal drug gestrinone; the good news was that there were fewer side effects. The other trial revealed that CHM provided greater relief than the drug danazol and therefore was much effective .It also resulted in fewer side effects. Lead researcher Andrew Flower of the Complementary Medicine Research Unit at the University of Southampton in the UK says, “These findings suggest that Chinese herbs may be just as effective as certain conventional drug treatments for women suffering from endometriosis, but at present we don’t have enough evidence to generalize the results”. The Cochrane review researchers apparently had a difficult time selecting the studies for review because many of them had poor research methodology and poor reporting quality. These are the features that future studies must look into in order for CHM to be accepted by the scientific world and for the majority to benefit from them! Related links TAGS:Chinese herbal medicine, Chinese herbs, Cochrane review endometriosisPost a comment
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Endometriosis is a gynecological disorder that causes irregular, often painful menstrual periods and pelvic pain. It commonly occurs in women in the reproductive age group and is a cause of infertility in them.
