Objective:

To evaluate whether adding oral berberine to luteal-phase progesterone improves anthropometric, hormonal, metabolic, and inflammatory indicators in women with PCOS compared with progesterone alone, highlighting the significance of addressing metabolic dysfunctions.

Key Findings:

• Significant reductions in weight, BMI, and WHR in the berberine group; no significant changes in controls.
• Adjusted post-treatment values for weight and BMI were significantly lower in the berberine group compared to controls.
• Total testosterone decreased significantly only in the berberine group.
• Fasting insulin, FBS, and HOMA-IR decreased significantly in the berberine group.
• Inflammatory markers (CRP, TNF-α, IL-6) declined significantly only in the berberine group.

Interpretation:

Adjunctive berberine therapy may improve anthropometric, hormonal, metabolic, and inflammatory profiles in women with PCOS, suggesting a potential new avenue for treatment.

Limitations:

• Retrospective design limits causality and introduces potential biases.
• Small sample size may affect generalizability.
• Lack of long-term follow-up data.

Conclusion:

Preliminary findings suggest potential benefits of berberine as an adjunct therapy in PCOS, but further randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm these effects and establish definitive clinical recommendations.