Efficacy of Habbul aas (fruits of Myrtus communis) in menorrhagia: a single blinded randomized standard control study

Objectives Menorrhagia can be defined as heavy uterine bleeding which comes at regular intervals or uterine bleeding extending more than seven days during menses which has become a considerable problem for females, causing discomfort, anxiety, and poor quality of life. In this study we aimed to compare the effect of Myrtus communis fruits with tranexamic acid in the treatment of menorrhagia. Methods In this prospective patient blinded standard controlled study, 40 patients of menorrhagia were randomly assigned to receive either test drug (powdered M. communis fruits) or active control drug (tranexamic acid) for first five days of menstrual cycle consecutively for two cycles. The primary outcome measure was reduction in heavy flow during menses determined by pictorial blood loss assessment chart (PBAC), while improvements in quality of life (QOL) by using short form-36 questionnaire and increase in hemoglobin percentage were kept as secondary outcome measures. Results Both the groups were similar at baseline. Test and control drugs significantly reduced the PBAC score during treatment cycles with p-value <0.001 and these changes were not significantly different between the groups. During second treatment cycle significant difference was found in PBAC score (p = 0.024) between the groups. After treatment significant improvement in hemoglobin percentage was noted and marked improvement in overall quality of life was observed in both the groups. Conclusion These data suggest that M. communis fruits can be an effective alternate in reducing heavy menstrual bleeding. There is need to confirm these results by designing a trial on large number of patients. Trial Registration No CTRI/2017/09/009937.

Keywords: herbal medicine; menorrhagia; quality of life; tranexamic acid.