Effect of Ginger on primary Dysmenorrhea: A systematic review of clinical trials and Quasi- Experimental studies in the world

Dysmenorrhea is a common gynecological disorder that causes behavioral problems and impairment in daily life of a woman in each menstruation cycle. Ginger plays an effective role in treatment of dysmenorrhea. Therefore, this review article was performed with aim to collect and review the clinical trials about effects of oral and topical ginger on dysmenorrhea.

In this review study, clinical trials and Quasi – Experimental studies up to Dec 2017 in Persian and English languages in Persian databases of IranMedex, Magiran, IranDoct, IRCT and English dataases of PubMed, Scopus, Science direct, Embase, Cochrane with Persian and English keywords such as Dysmenorrhea, Menstrual pain, Menstrual cramps, Painful menstruation, Zingiber, Ginger, Shokyo, Gingiber officinale, and Zingier were reviewed without any time limitation and the articles with inclusion criteria entered into the study and were evaluated by qualitative analysis.

After reviewing 2101 articles, 12 clinical trials which based on Jadad score obtained ≥3 and 3 Quasi- experimental studies which based on EPHPP tool obtained 1.51-3.00 were evaluated. Most of the articles referred to the anti-inflammatory properties and inhibition of cyclooxygenase, followed by the reduction of gastrointestinal leukotriene and prostaglandin in relieving painful dysmenorrhea in both forms of oral and typical. There was not possible to do meta-analysis due to the heterogeneity of the studies.

According to the results, there is credible evidence on the positive effect of oral and topical ginger on reducing pain and inflammation, especially in the first three days of menstruation.