Clinical Efficacy of Sesamum indicum L. in Oligomenorrhea Management

There is an increasing demand for alternative medicine in treatment of oligomenorrhea. Sesamum indicum L. is a well-known medication used in the Avicenna traditional medicine to induce menstrual bleeding in women with oligomenorrhea.. This study is the first effort to evaluate the efficacy of this therapeutic method on patients with oligomenorrhea..Patients and A pilot study was carried out on 21 case of oligomenorrhea having complaint of menstruation retard for more than two weeks admitted to Beheshti Hospital clinic. Patients who had not used hormonal chemical or herbal drugs and were not pregnant or lactating were enrolled and received sesame once daily for seven days per oral. Patients were followed for seven weeks after drug administration.. This pilot study was carried out on 21 individuals with oligomenorrhea, complaining of menstruation retardation for more than two weeks, admitted to Beheshti Hospital clinic. Patients who had not used hormonal, chemical or herbal drugs and those who were not pregnant or lactating were enrolled and received sesame once daily for seven days orally. Patients were followed for seven weeks after drug use. At the end of the study, 85% of the patients experienced menstrual bleeding after receiving sesame treatment by two weeks. The mean menstruation period of the individuals before initiating the study and the treatment was 9.8 days, while the mean postponement time after the last patients’ menstruation, before treatment, was 92 days. Blood flow and pain during menstruation were not significantly higher than past menstruation episodes. No untoward side effect was noticed during the clinical trial. The next menstruation episode follow-up demonstrated that 80% of the patients had menstruation without using any drugs with a less than two weeks delay.. The results demonstrated that Sesamum indicum L. may be an effective choice in inducing menstruation in women with oligomenorrhea, which has ignorable side effects comparing to the current hormonal therapies. Stronger clinical trials with placebo-control groups are recommended to strengthen this hypothesis..