Acupuncture and moxibustion for endometriosis: A systematic review and analysis

Yongxia Wang, Wang Y, Meaghan E Coyle, Meaghan Coyle, Miaowen Hong, Hong M, Siya He, He S, Zhang AL, Anthony L Zhang, Anthony Lin Zhang, Xinfeng Guo, Chuanjian Lu, Lu C, Charlie C L Xue, Charlie Changli Xue, Liang X, Xuefang Liang
Complementary therapies in medicine · 2023 · vol. 76 , pp. 102963 · doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2023.102963 · PMID:37453585 · W4384156202
review OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 8 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Manual acupuncture demonstrated effectiveness in reducing pain and improving quality of life for endometriosis patients compared to sham acupuncture, with few adverse events reported.

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Abstract

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the effect of acupuncture on symptoms and health-related quality of life in patients with endometriosis. METHODS: Nine biomedical databases were searched to April 2022 to identify randomized controlled trials of acupuncture and/or moxibustion used alone or as adjunct to guideline-recommended pharmacotherapy for the treatment of endometriosis. One reviewer extracted data and another verified the data. A random effects model was used to calculate mean differences. RESULTS: Fifteen trials involving 1018 patients met the inclusion criteria, but diversity in comparisons and outcome measures prevented meta-analysis. Compared to sham acupuncture, manual acupuncture was more effective at reducing dysmenorrhea VAS pain score (mean difference [MD] - 2.40, 95 % CI [- 2.80, - 2.00]; moderate certainty evidence), pelvic pain VAS score (MD - 2.65, 95 % CI [- 3.40, - 1.90]; high certainty evidence) and dyspareunia VAS scores (MD - 2.88, [- 3.83, - 1.93]), lessened the size of ovarian cyst (MD - 3.88, 95 % CI [- 7.06, - 0.70]), and improved quality of life. Compared to conventional therapy, manual acupuncture plus conventional therapy and warm needle alone resulted in greater improvements in quality of life than conventional therapy. Among the six studies that reported safety, fewer adverse events were reported in participants who received acupuncture or moxibustion. CONCLUSIONS: Low to moderate certainty evidence from single studies showed that manual acupuncture may improve pain-related symptoms and quality of life; however, there is insufficient evidence on the overall effectiveness of acupuncture and moxibustion for endometriosis.

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Outcome instruments

VAS-pain

Condition tags

dysmenorrheaendometriosisdyspareunia

MeSH descriptors

Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy Acupuncture Therapy

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (33)

Cited by (8)

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