Therapeutic effect of herbal infusion on abnormal uterine bleeding: interventional non-randomized pilot study

Abstract

Background: Abnormal uterine bleeding-menometrorrhagia due to uterine myomas is a health problem affecting women’s quality of life and it is considered a frequent cause of emergency visits for women. If first line medication fails to treat symptoms, surgical procedures, such as hysterectomy could be indicated, which could interfere with women's physical, social, emotional, and material quality of life. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the effect of a mixture of two medicinal plants, Mentha pulegium L and Artemisia abrotanum L, on 13 women with menometrorrhagia, who were candidates for hysterectomy. Methods: The herbs were taken as a tea infusion by the oral route. A total of 5 g of the dried aerial parts of the mixture were added to 100 ml of boiling water and the tea infusion was taken three times a day starting from the onset of menstruation for three consecutive days, and it was repeated for three consecutive months. Results: The study results showed that 10 out of the 13 women involved avoided the surgical procedures. The mean number of bleeding days declined from 11.50 (±3.77) at baseline to 7.60 (±2.11) (p=0.01). Participants confirmed a change in the bleeding intensity, regularization of their menstrual cycle, and improvement in their quality of life. Conclusions: This preliminary study explores a new approach to treat abnormal uterine bleeding- menometrorrhagia, based on tea infusion consumption of a mixture of two medicinal herbs, and it paves the way for future studies. Trial registration: This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05406960 (07/06/2022).