A Cochrane review included 78 trials involving a total of 500686 women. Treatment with combined oral contraceptives did not hasten resolution of functional ovarian cysts in any trial. This held true for cysts that occurred spontaneously as well as those that developed after ovulation induction. Most cysts resolved without treatment within a few cycles; persistent cysts tended to be pathological (e.g., endometrioma or para-ovarian cyst) and not physiological.
Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by imprecise results (limited study size for each comparison).