Applications of Dry and Wet Cupping Therapy in Obstetrics and Gynecology: A Narrative Review of Clinical Trials

Cupping therapy is a long-standing traditional therapy that its application has re-emerged, recently. Due to the lack of a review on the applications of this method specifically in obstetrics and gynecology, the present study was performed to evaluate and summarize data from clinical trials on dry and wet cupping applications in obstetrics and gynecology.

In this narrative review, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, ProQuest, databases and Google Scholar search engine, as well as Persian databases including SID, Magiran, and Iranmedex were searched without time limit until the end of November 2022. Keywords included cupping, women, pregnancy, obstetrics, gynecology, treatment, dry and wet cupping, clinical trial and their persian equivalents. All clinical trials that examined the effect of different cupping therapy applications for obstetric and gynecological conditions were evaluated by two independent reviewers using the Jadad scale and studies with the scores of 3 or more were included in the review. Nine eligible clinical trials were included in this review.

Cupping therapy was identified as an effective method for improving primary dysmenorrhea, chronic pelvic pain, hypercholesterolemia in menopausal women, oligomenorrhea, idiopathic menorrhagia, low back pain due to pregnancy and delivery, perineal pain due to the childbirth and postpartum anxiety.

The widespread use of cupping in obstetrics and gynecology has had a positive effect on mitigating a wide range of conditions. Knowledge of the various applications of this method could help specialists to employ this branch of complementary medicine along with other conventional medicine methods of treatment.