The Use of Natural Products for the Treatment of Female Sexual Dysfunction: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials

Abstract

Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) affects 40% of the world’s females, most of which are disorders linked to desire or interest/excitement. Whilst all types of therapy that attempt to improve female sexual desire have long been established, the results are contradictory. Objective: To analyze all available evidence to validate the effectiveness of natural therapies in the treatment of FSD. Method: The study was registered at http://www.prospero.org (CRD42019127700). We searched the Institute for Scientific Information Web of Knowledge, MEDLINE, Pubmed, Scopus and Cochrane databases for all articles published in peer- reviewed journals in April 2019 (in any language). The PICOS standard is women with FSD; (intervention) of any type of Natural therapy; (outcome) primary outcome: frequency of changes, severity, and average mean scores on sexual symptoms measured with a validated instrument, secondary outcome: quality of life; (study design) and randomized clinical trial (RCT). Results: The literature search strategy identified 95 articles, 81 of which were excluded at the different search stages. Finally, we systematically reviewed 15 RCTs, 11 of which referred to primary FSD, and four of which analyzed women with drug-induced FSD (DFSD). Most of them analyzed hypoactive sexual desire disorder. Although differences related to placebo were found in most people, the majority of the studies are considered to be of poor quality and low external effectiveness. Conclusion: Although the quality of the evidence is not high, most natural product interventions appear to improve FSD, particularly hypoactive sexual desire disorders including those categorized as primary and drug-induced.