Chasteberry Benefits

There are several potential benefits of chasteberry. For example, some people use chasteberry for the treatment of menstrual disorders, such as painful menstrual periods, PMS, or PMDD. Chasteberry is also claimed to relieve menopause symptoms, prevent miscarriages, increase breast milk supply, and decrease sexual desire in men. However, there is little scientific evidence supporting uses.

Chasteberry Herbal Information

Purported Chasteberry Benefits

Chasteberry (vitex) is claimed to be helpful for a variety of different purposes. Some of the purported benefits of chasteberry include:

Treating the following conditions:

Menstrual disorders, including:

Painful menstrual periods (dysmenorrhea)
Absent menstrual periods (amenorrhea)
Irregular bleeding between periods (metrorrhagia)
Infrequent menstrual periods (oligomenorrhea)
Frequent menstrual periods (polymenorrhea)
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)

Infertility in women
Luteal phase defect (a specific cause for infertility in women)
Fibrocystic breasts
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)
Acne
Headaches, including migraines
Insomnia
The common cold
Nervousness

Relieving menopause symptoms
Preventing miscarriages in women with insufficient progesterone levels
Increasing breast milk supply
Decreasing sexual desire in men.

It is important to understand that herbs and supplements can be marketed in the United States without any evidence that they are safe or effective. Some of these claimed chasteberry benefits are more legitimate than others, although more research is necessary to confirm that chasteberry is truly effective for most uses (see Does Vitex Work?).

(Chasteberry Benefits Continued: Page 2)