The Efficacy of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Treatment of Female Infertility

Abstract

Female infertility is a state of fertility disorder caused by multiple reasons. The incidence of infertility for females has significantly increased due to various factors such as social pressure, late marriage, and late childbirth, and its harm includes heavy economic burden, psychological shadow, and even marriage failure. Conventional solutions, such as hormone therapy, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and embryo transfer, have the limitations of unsatisfied obstetric outcomes and serious adverse events. Currently, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), as a new treatment for infertility, is gradually challenging the dominant position of traditional therapies in the treatment of infertility. CAM claims that it can adjust and harmonize the state of the female body from a holistic approach to achieve a better therapeutic effect and has been increasingly used by infertile women. Meanwhile, some controversial issues also appeared; that is, some randomized controlled trials (RCTs) confirmed that CAM had no obvious effect on infertility, and the mechanism of its effect could not reach a consensus. To clarify CAM effectiveness, safety, and mechanism, this paper systematically reviewed the literature about its treatment of female infertility collected from PubMed and CNKI databases and mainly introduced acupuncture, moxibustion, and oral Chinese herbal medicine. In addition, we also briefly summarized psychological intervention, biosimilar electrical stimulation, homeopathy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, etc.

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“…As shown in Table 2, traditional herbal medicines have been used to treat female infertility [191]. Several reports have suggested that traditional herbal formulas and medicinal herbs successfully improve endometrial receptivity and might be an alternative option for improving the outcome of embryo implantation [192][193][194].…”

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“…CAM includes many products and medical practices that are not conventional therapies in western countries, including not only traditional medicines and folk therapies, but also many new therapies that cannot be covered by medical insurance, such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM; including Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, qigong, etc. ), Indian medicine, medicinal food, health food, aromatherapy, vitamin therapy, dietary therapy, psychotherapy, spa therapy, and oxygen therapy [ 19 , 20 ]. CAM is favored by many countries and nationalities because of its natural ingredients and methods, its convenience, and its low costs.…”