Effect of Herbal Medicine on Vaginal Epithelial Cells: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Overview

Journal J Menopausal Med

Date 2018 May 17

PMID 29765922

Authors

Yousef Rahmani

Khadijeh Chaleh Chaleh

Afshar Shahmohammadi

Shahla Safari

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objectives: The present meta-analysis aimed to assess the effect of the herbal medicine on the vaginal epithelial cells (VECs) among the menopausal subjects.

Methods: The literature related to VECs exposed to various herbal medicines in menopausal women were searched on three databases, MEDLINE (1966-August 2017), Scopus (1990-August 2017) and Cochrane Library (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; 2014).

Results: Totally, the meta-analysis was conducted on 11 randomised controlled trials. Based on the findings, the standardized mean difference (SMD) of maturation value (MV) was observed to be elevated by 0.48% (95% interval confidence [CI], 0.108-0.871; = 0.012), as well as the heterogeneity was high (I = 84%; < 0.001). The MV revealed a significant increase in soy group (SMD, 0.358; 95% CI, 0.073-0.871; = 0.014) compared to the control group.

Conclusions: The herbal medicines exhibited a statistically significant effect on the VECs. A significant effect on the VECs was also found in the subgroup analysis of the patients, who received soy. However, further and extensive studies are required to achieve reliable outcomes.

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