Investigation of the role of herbal medicine, acupressure, and acupuncture in the menopausal symptoms: An evidence-based systematic review study

BACKGROUND: Menopause is an important physiological phenomenon in women's lives. Women's concern about taking the hormone treatment to ease menopausal symptoms is increasing. Over the past decade, the use of complementary and alternative medicine for the treatment of menopausal problems instead of hormone therapy has increased. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the role of herbal medicine, acupressure, and acupuncture in the menopausal symptoms. METHODS: Data source: related articles were searched from internal scientific databases and external databases of “Web of Scopus, Cochrane, PubMed, Science Direct, Ovid, and Google scholar.” STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: The keywords such as menopause, menopausal symptoms, complementary menopausal medicine, acupuncture in menopause, herbal medicine in menopause, and acupuncture in menopause were searched in the studies from 1987 to 2019. Exclusion criteria were inadequate information in the study, lack of access to full-text articles, animal studies, and reports. At the end of the search, 145 articles out of a total of 400 articles were reviewed. RESULTS: In various studies, different herbs such as licorice, valerian, soy, sage, ginseng, etc., were used to improve menopausal symptoms. In addition, acupuncture and acupressure were used to reduce menopausal symptoms. CONCLUSION: The efficacy and use of complementary and alternative medicine, along with other classical medicine care, can be a new model for improving menopausal symptoms in women. It is recommended that further clinical and review studies be conducted to develop complementary and alternative medicine.