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The Effect of Berberine on Reproduction and Metabolism in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Control Trials

Xie L, Zhang D, Ma H, He H, Xia Q, Shen W, Chang H, Deng Y, Wu Q, Cong J, Wang CC, Wu X

Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM 2019 2019:7918631

Bibliography

PubMed: PMID 31915452
PubMed Central: PMC6930782
DOI: 10.1155/2019/7918631
Funding: Indexed support: Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine; National Natural Science Foundation of China; Science and Technology Plan of the Chinese Medicine Administration of Heilongjiang Province; Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province. See the publication for grant details.
Competing interests: The authors declared no competing interests in the publication.

Design	Systematic review and meta-analysis
Model	Published human studies
Sample	Randomized PCOS trials; denominators differ by outcome
Intervention	Evidence synthesis; interventions and comparators vary across included studies
Duration	No new treatment; included-study durations vary
Endpoints	Pooled clinical or metabolic outcomes; Risk of bias and heterogeneity; Adverse-event reporting

The review found no solid evidence for improved live birth or other clinical outcomes, despite signals for selected metabolic and hormonal measures.

The review found no solid evidence for improved live birth or other clinical outcomes, despite signals for selected metabolic and hormonal measures.

Do not turn sparse pregnancy adverse-event reporting into established pregnancy safety. Read with the 2026 integrity reappraisal.

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Last verified 22 October 2026