Pelvic pain in endometriosis: Painkillers or sport to alleviate symptoms?

A Koppan, Ágnes Koppán, J Hámori, J Hamori, I Vránics, I Vranics, János Garai, J Garai, I Kriszbacher, J Bodis, József Bódis, Gábor Rébék-Nagy, G Rebek-Nagy, Miklós Koppán, M Koppan
Acta physiologica Hungarica · 2010 · vol. 97(2) , pp. 234–239 · doi:10.1556/aphysiol.97.2010.2.10 · PMID:20511133 · W2127092100
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 18 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This study found that women with endometriosis who engaged in regular sports activity reported less reliance on painkillers compared to those who did not exercise.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

To assess potential individual factors influencing quality of life and pain scores of patients suffering from histologically confirmed endometriosis. Study using a questionnaire among patients of reproductive age undergoing laparoscopy with a presumed diagnosis of endometriosis. Details of fertility, previous treatments and quality of life, sexual activity, as well as linear pain scores for several symptoms, were recorded. Details of intraoperative findings were also collected and only those data were used where endometriosis was intraoperatively and histologically proven. A questionnaire before surgery gathered information from women on the following groups of variables: age, marital status, education, reproductive and medical history including previous pregnancies and parity, knowledge of accompanying pelvic disorders, regular sport activity, as well as general quality of life estimates including self-image. Pelvic pain was scored using a visual analogue scale. Data were statistically evaluated. Eighty-one patients complaining about persistent pelvic pain were later intraoperatively and histologically proven to have endometriosis. Thirty-one of them (38.2%) reported regular sport as part of their daily life schedule while 50 of them (61.8%) performed no physical activity at all. Fourteen patients among regular exercisers and 33 patients among those without physical activity reported the effectiveness of painkillers for pelvic pain, corresponding to 45.1% and 66% of these subgroups, respectively (difference statistically significant, p<0.05). Based on our results, we can conclude, that taking painkillers might be less effective among endometriosis patients performing regular daily sport activities, and, thus it might impose them to an unnecessary burden of possible side-effects.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

mesh:D004715mesh:D017699endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Analgesics Endometriosis Exercise Pelvic Pain Adult Analgesics Analgesics Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Laparoscopy Pain Measurement Pelvic Pain Pelvic Pain Quality of Life Risk Assessment Sports

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (18)

Cited by (18)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:17:12.951333+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-06-02T02:00:03.124865+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK