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Effect of swimming exercise on premenstrual syndrome

Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics volume 297, pages 951–959 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective

To study the effectiveness of performing swimming on the severity of symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

Materials and methods

A randomized controlled trial that was conducted on 70 women diagnosed with PMS divided randomly into two equal groups: Group I included women who engaged into exercise and group II controls. Daily Symptoms Report was filled at the start and at end of the study.

Results

At the posttreatment evaluation, there was a highly significant difference between the study and control groups regarding anxiety (0 vs. 5), depression (3 vs. 12), tension (3 vs. 12), mood changes (0 vs. 7), feeling out of control (0 vs. 7), weak coordination (0 vs. 10), confusion (2 vs. 9), headache (3 vs. 15), tiredness (4 vs. 12), pains (5 vs. 11), tenderness of the breast (2 vs. 8), and cramps (6 vs. 17) (P < 0.001), but no such difference was found regarding irritability, insomnia, crying, swelling, or food craving. Regarding the percentage of symptoms changes, there was a highly significant difference between the study and control groups regarding anxiety (− 33.3 vs. 0), depression (− 79.29 vs. 15.56), tension (− 81.18 vs. − 6.79), mood changes (− 33.33 vs. 0), feeling out of control (− 91.67 vs. 0), weak coordination (− 100 vs. − 9.55), sleeplessness (− 71.43 vs. 0), confusion (− 84.17 vs. − 9.55), headache (− 77.78 vs. − 6.94), fatigue (− 65.69 vs. 0), pains (− 65.83 vs. − 8.93), breast tenderness (− 87.87 vs. 4.55), cramps (− 60.77 vs. 4.55), and swellings (− 55.05 vs. − 8.33), but no such difference was found regarding irritability, crying, or food craving.

Conclusions

There is beneficial effect of swimming on most of the physical and psychological symptoms of PMS.

Clinical trial registry no.

NCT03264612.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    Ahmed Mohamed Maged, Heba Elsawah, Heba Wagih & Asmaa I. Ogila

  2. Reproductive Health and Family Planning Department, National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt

    Amr H. Abbassy

  3. Physical Therapy for Gynecology and Obstetrics, Badr University, Cairo, Egypt

    Hend R. S. Sakr

  4. Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Beni-Suef University, Beni Suef, Egypt

    Amal Kotb

  5. Giza, Egypt

    Ahmed Mohamed Maged

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  1. Ahmed Mohamed Maged
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Contributions

MMA: data analysis and manuscript writing/editing. AHA: protocol/project development and manuscript revision. HRSS: protocol/project development and manuscript writing/editing. HE protocol/project development. HW: protocol/project development. AIO: data collection. AK: manuscript writing/editing.

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Correspondence to Ahmed Mohamed Maged.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Maged, A.M., Abbassy, A.H., Sakr, H.R.S. et al. Effect of swimming exercise on premenstrual syndrome. Arch Gynecol Obstet 297, 951–959 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4664-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4664-1

Keywords

  • Swimming
  • Aerobic exercise
  • Premenstrual syndrome