Abstract: Dysmenorrhea is a common gynecologic disease, which seriously affects the women's daily life and work, and the incidence is rising every year. Therefore, a appropriate treatment of dysmenorrhea is really important for improving women’s health, work efficiency and living quality. Treatment with western medicine has obvious effects, but also a considerable side-effects, which can only relieve symptoms, and easily relapse. Traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of dysmenorrhea has achieved good effects in both primary and late term. And the widely used method is internal treatment, which has clear effects and mechanism. In recent years, acupoint sticking, moxibustion and other external methods are widely used in clinic. However, researches of the treating mechanism and new preparations are rarely seen. This article summarizes and analyzes the characteristics and progress in experimental research on traditional Chinese medicine external treatment of dysmenorrheal by consulting relevant literature in recent 10 years to provide the reference for the development of clinical application and new preparation of traditional Chinese medicine external treatment of dysmenorrhea.

Key words: TCM external therapy, dysmenorrhea, experimental research