The Practice of Hatha Yoga for the Treatment of Pain Associated with Endometriosis

Andrea Vasconcelos Gonçalves, Nelson Filice Barros, Nélson Filice de Barros, Luis Bahamondes, Luís Bahamondes
Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · 2016 · vol. 23(1) , pp. 45–52 · doi:10.1089/acm.2015.0343 · PMID:27869485 · W2554074980
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An 8-week Hatha yoga intervention for women with endometriosis significantly reduced daily pain and improved quality of life, though menstrual patterns showed no difference.

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Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare chronic pelvic pain, menstrual patterns, and quality of life (QoL) in two groups of women with endometriosis: those who did and those who did not participate in a specific 8-week yoga intervention. METHOD: This was a randomized controlled trial. It was conducted at the University of Campinas Medical School, Campinas, SP, Brazil. Forty women were randomly divided into two groups: an intervention group of women who practiced yoga (n = 28), and a control group of women who did not practice yoga (n = 12). Participants attended 90-min scheduled yoga sessions twice a week for 8 weeks. Additionally, an Endometriosis Health Profile (EHP)-30 questionnaire was applied to evaluate women's QoL at admission and 2 months later upon completion of the yoga program. Menstrual and daily pain patterns were evaluated through a daily calendar (visual analog scale). RESULTS: The degree of daily pain was significantly lower among the women who practiced yoga compared with the non-yoga group (p = 0.0007). There was an improvement of QoL in both groups between baseline and the end of the study evaluation. In relation to EHP-30 domains, pain (p = 0.0046), impotence (p = 0.0006), well-being (p = 0.0009), and image (p = 0.0087) from the central questionnaire, and work (p = 0.0027) and treatment (p = 0.0245) from the modular questionnaire were significantly different between the study groups over time. There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding the diary of menstrual patterns (p = 0.96). CONCLUSIONS: Yoga practice was associated with a reduction in levels of chronic pelvic pain and an improvement in QoL in women with endometriosis.

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Outcome instruments

EHP-30

Condition tags

mesh:D004715mesh:D017699endometriosischronic_pelvic_pain

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Meditation Pain Management Pelvic Pain Quality of Life Yoga Adult Endometriosis Female Humans Menstruation Pelvic Pain Pelvic Pain Surveys and Questionnaires

Citation neighborhood

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References (25)

Cited by (50)

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