摘要

This study employed a systematic review of randomized clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy and adverse effects of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for menopausal symptoms. Five electronic databases, including 2 English databases (MEDLINE and Cochrane Library) and 3 Chinese databases (VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Chinese BioMedical Literature Database) were searched. Thirteen high-quality, randomized, clinical trials that scored 3 to 5 using the Jadad scale were included. Two thousand two hundred ninety-one participants were involved: 1294 received CHM therapies and 997 were in the control groups. Outcomes for menopausal symptoms were measured by quantitative questionnaires or participants' symptom diaries. According to the present evidence, CHM with an adequate Chinese diagnosis for menopausal symptoms is effective and has better results than that without adequate Chinese diagnosis. The evidence also shows that CHM is safe but has some slight adverse effects.