SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Obstetrics and Gynecology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1649980
Acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine versus Chinese herbal medicine alone to improve clinical efficacy in treating endometriosis-associated pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun, China
- 2The Affiliated Hospital of Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changchun, China
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Objective The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) on endometriosis-associated pain. Methods We searched 8 electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed) to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture combined with CHM for endometriosis-associated pain. After literature screening and data extraction, statistical analysis was done with RevMan 5.4, and the risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Handbook’s Risk of Bias tool. Result Our study included a total of 16 RCTs involving women with endometriosis-associated pain. Compared with CHM monotherapy, acupuncture combined with CHM significantly increased the clinical efficacy rate (OR = 3.75, 95% CI [2.58, 5.45], P < 0.00001) and reduced the visual analog scale (VAS) score (MD = -1.49, 95% CI [-2.43, -0.56], P < 0.0001). Conclusion: This systematic review indicates acupuncture combined with CHM is a valuable non-hormonal option for endometriosis-related pain, outperforming CHM monotherapy in symptom relief and quality of life. It supports clinical integration, especially for patients unsuitable for hormonal therapies. However, conclusions are preliminary and require validation via large, rigorous RCTs, providing a reference for practice and future research.
Keywords: Endometriosis, Acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine, randomized controlled trial
Received: 19 Jun 2025; Accepted: 19 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Wang, Liu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Changhui Li, 57151020@qq.com
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