Meta-analysis of the efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome

To systematically evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture and moxibustion as a complementary treatment for polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS) and provide evidence for clinical treatment. The following seven databases were searched from the date of database creation to October 29, 2023: PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, China Biology Medicine (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, and VIP. The literature was screened according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, data were extracted, quality was evaluated using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool, and a meta-analysis of the outcomes was performed using Review Manager 5.4 software. A total of 20 researches were included and the test group was treated with modern medicine, acupuncture, electroacupuncture, warm needling, and thunder-fire moxibustion. The control group was treated with modern medicine, including clomiphene, Diane-35, letrozole, metformin, and progesterone. The meta-analysis showed that acupuncture and moxibustion as a complementary therapy for PCOS improved the ovulation and pregnancy rates and reduced the body mass index (BMI), luteinizing hormone (LH) levels, the LH/follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) ratio, and ovarian volume; however, due to high heterogeneity, the differences regarding improvements in FSH, estradiol(E2), testosterone (T) and progesterone (P) levels could not draw a definite conclusion when compared with modern first-line drugs alone. Acupuncture and moxibustion as a complementary treatment for PCOS has good clinical efficacy; however, because of the relatively low quality of the included studies, the results may be biased. More high-quality clinical studies are needed to verify the results. The Prospero Registration number is CRD42022368304.