Efficacy of Dry Cupping versus Counselling with Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy Approach (MBCT) on Fertility Quality of Life and Conception Success in Infertile Women due to Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Background Infertility is a common problem in the world that can have devastating effects on women’s quality of life. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most prevalent causes of female infertility. There is still no definitive treatment for infertility due to PCOS. The purpose of this pilot study was to compare the effectiveness of dry cupping and counselling with the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) approach on the fertility quality of life and conception success in infertile women due to PCOS, referring to health centers of Shiraz, Iran, 2021–2022. METHODS This study was a randomized pilot clinical trial. After assessing 350 infertile women referred to health centers of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences from 21 Dec 2021 to 21 Apr 2022, 19 people fulfilling the inclusion criteria, were included in the study. Participants were randomly divided into two groups (10 in the counselling group and 9 in the cupping group). Counselling group received eight weekly sessions/ 90 minutes of MBCT at one week and in the cupping group, dry cupping was performed twice/per week during non-menstrual days for two months by a traditional medicine expert. All participants completed the FertiQol questionnaire before the intervention and three months after the end of the intervention. In addition, during three months after the end of the intervention, a pregnancy test was performed every month for all of them. Data were analyzed by Stata 14.2. RESULTS Based on the result of this study, after the intervention the mean overall scores of FertiQol in the counselling group were significantly higher than the cupping group (P = 0.091, MD = 11.1) and after adjusting the results, the difference between the average scores of the two groups increased after the interventions (P = 0.030, MD = 11.66). Also, the evaluation of the conception rate in the two groups didn’t show any significant difference. CONCLUSION Results showed the effectiveness of MBCT on fertility quality of life in infertility caused by PCOS. Due to the lack of significant difference between the conception rate between the two groups, studies with larger sample size and a control group are recommended to obtain more generalizable results. Trial registration: The trial protocol was registered on the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trial on 05/11/2021, IRCT Id: IRCT201706110334452N13 (https://www.irct.ir/trial/55048).