Endometriosis and physical exercises: a systematic review

Camila M Bonocher, Mary L Montenegro, Mary Lourdes Montenegro, Júlio C. Rosa e Silva, Julio C Rosa E Silva, Rui Alberto Ferriani, Rui A Ferriani, Juliana Meola
Reproductive biology and endocrinology : RB&E · 2014 · vol. 12(1) , pp. 4 · doi:10.1186/1477-7827-12-4 · PMID:24393293 · PMC3895811 · W2112754537
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This systematic review of limited studies found inconclusive evidence on the relationship between physical exercise and endometriosis prevalence or symptom improvement, calling for randomized research.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This systematic review assessed whether physical exercise is associated with the prevalence of endometriosis and/or improvement of related symptoms, searching PubMed (1985 to Sept 2012) for studies linking “endometriosis and physical exercises” and related terms. Among 935 articles found, only 6 met inclusion criteria (observational/experimental analytical or descriptive studies of associations with endometriosis diagnosed by laparoscopy), but the included studies were not comparable and results were inconsistent. The review reports evidence of lower endometriosis risk with regular exercise in some studies, including an inverse association in a large retrospective comparative study and a prospective cohort signal with activity measured in MET hours, while other findings noted possibilities such as avoidance of strenuous activity during menstruation and selection/bias related to pain limiting exercise; it also states there were no data on exercise effects on the disease course and that randomized studies are needed. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it is a systematic review specifically evaluating the relationship between physical exercise and endometriosis prevalence and symptoms.

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Abstract

Regular physical exercise seems to have protective effects against diseases that involve inflammatory processes since it induces an increase in the systemic levels of cytokines with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and also acts by reducing estrogen levels. Evidence has suggested that the symptoms associated with endometriosis result from a local inflammatory peritoneal reaction caused by ectopic endometrial implants. Thus, the objective of the present review was to assess the relationship between physical exercise and the prevalence and/or improvement of the symptoms associated with endometriosis. To this end, data available in PubMed (1985-2012) were surveyed using the terms "endometriosis and physical exercises", "endometriosis and life style and physical exercises" in the English language literature. Only 6 of the 935 articles detected were included in the study. These studies tried establish a possible relationship between the practice of physical exercise and the prevalence of endometriosis. The data available are inconclusive regarding the benefits of physical exercise as a risk factor for the disease and no data exist about the potential impact of exercise on the course of the endometriosis. In addition, randomized studies are necessary.

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Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Exercise Risk Reduction Behavior Case-Control Studies Endometriosis Endometriosis Exercise Female Humans

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 (31)

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