Can Tibetan medicine Honghua Ruyi pills relieve endometriosis-associated dysmenorrhea? Protocol for a randomized placebo-controlled trial

Mei Han, Jiahui Cao, Jiali Wei, Hui Luo, Chaoqin Yu, Xuefang Liang, Nyangmotse, Guoyan Yang, Huilan Du, Jianping Liu
In: Journal of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences · 2023 · vol. 11(1) , pp. 78–85 · doi:10.1016/j.jtcms.2023.12.010 · W4389505341
OA: gold CC0
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-13 ⓘ

This study is a randomized placebo-controlled trial investigating the efficacy and safety of Tibetan medicine Honghua Ruyi pills for endometriosis-associated dysmenorrhea in 164 women.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

To provide high-quality clinical evidence of the efficacy of Tibetan medicine Honghua Ruyi (HHRY) pills for endometriosis-associated dysmenorrhea. This study constitutes a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial encompassing a three-menstrual cycle intervention followed by a three-menstrual cycle follow-up period. A total of 164 eligible females with endometriosis-associated dysmenorrhea were randomly divided into HHRY pills and placebo groups in a 1:1 ratio. The primary outcome included dysmenorrhea symptoms assessed using Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores and quality of life, whereas the secondary outcome measures included the maximum VAS for non-menstrual pelvic pain, duration of pain episodes (in days), frequency and quantity of the consumption of ibuprofen sustained-release capsules (or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), and days off work/study for staff/student due to dysmenorrhea, ovarian cyst, and/or pelvic nodule size. The safety was monitored throughout the treatment period. All the analyses were based on the intention-to-treat principle. For continuous outcomes, simple or multiple linear regressions were used to estimate the differences between the HHRY pills and placebo groups, with categorical data expressed as the number and percentage of occurrences. Differences were compared using the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. The predefined analysis was adjusted for concomitant treatment, a variable considered to be associated with outcomes but unaffected by treatment allocation. Estimates of treatment effects were reported with 95% confidence intervals. Two-tailed P values ≤ .05 were considered statistically significant. Positive results from this trial, upon completion would provide robust evidence for the efficacy and safety of HHRY pills in treating dysmenorrhea in patients with endometriosis.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Outcome instruments

VAS-pain

Condition tags

endometriosisdysmenorrhea

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

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. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (34)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK