Acupuncture May Improve Quality of Life in Menopausal Women: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Objective: This analysis aims to identify, on the basis of the results of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), whether acupuncture therapy can alleviate menopausal symptoms and promote health-related quality of life. Methods: We included RCTs that directly compared any type of acupuncture with sham acupuncture in treating menopause-related symptoms and which were published from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2016 in 6 electronic databases. Two authors performed this work independently; ‘risk-of-bias' assessment and data extraction were also independently performed by these 2 review authors. The outcomes are presented as scores of the menopause rating scale (MRS), which represents the self-assessment of patients. Results: Six studies were included. Our analysis found that acupuncture can reduce the MRS score in menopausal women by the end of the treating period (2-3 months, on average) and even in the follow-up period (1-3 months), not only in the total score but also in each subscale score. But the grade of evidence is very low. Conclusions: Both the total score and the subgroup analysis strongly indicated that acupuncture can alleviate menopause-related symptoms. However, the evidence is not very strong. Thus, further studies about the efficiency of acupuncture on menopausal symptoms based on well-designed trials are needed.