Acupuncture regulates the menstrual cycle and reduces weight gain

A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted of RCTs that compared either acupuncture with no/sham (placebo) acupuncture or a certain therapy with acupuncture added in the treatment of PCOS.

Measures of treatment effectiveness were the pooled odds ratios (OR) for women with PCOS having acupuncture compared with women in the control group for the recovery of menstrual cycles, standardized mean difference (SMD) for body mass index (BMI), fasting insulin (FINS), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and the ratio of LH/FSH. A total of nine RCTs (531 women) met criteria for inclusion into the systematic review.

Using the random effects model, pooling of the effect estimates from all RCTs showed recovery of menstrual cycles (OR = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.09 to 0.41, P 0.01), BMI (SMD = -0.63, 95% CI: -1.04 to -0.21, P=0.04), and LH (SMD = -0.39, 95% CI: -0.65 to -0.12, P < 0.01) which favored the acupuncture group. No significant differences were observed for FINS, FPG, FSH and the ratio of LH/FSH between acupuncture and control groups (P 0.05).

Acupuncture appears to significantly improve the recovery of the menstrual cycles and decrease the levels of BMI and LH in women with PCOS.

Reference

Qu, et al. The effects of acupuncture on polycystic ovary syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, Volume 8, Issue 1, February 2016, 12–18.