Oriental Herbal Medicine and Moxibustion for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

The document reports a meta-analysis examining the efficacy and safety of combining oriental herbal medicine (OHM) with moxibustion as a treatment for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The analysis included randomized controlled trials and quasi-randomized controlled trials comparing this combination treatment to western medication (WM) alone or as an adjunct to WM. The results indicated that OHM combined with moxibustion was associated with a significantly higher pregnancy rate, rate of normal biphasic basal body temperature (BBT), and total effective rate (TER) compared to WM alone. When used alongside WM, the combination treatment also showed a higher pregnancy rate and TER. Despite these positive outcomes, the document cautions that the findings should be interpreted carefully due to the poor methodological quality of the included studies, and it calls for further larger, high-quality randomized controlled trials to confirm these results.