Menstrual pain, medically known as dysmenorrhea, is pain that begins before or at the beginning of menstruation and can continue until the end of the menstrual period.
Although it varies according to societies, the rate of women experiencing painful menstrual periods is between 20% and 90%. is available. It is a situation that many women today face since adolescence.
Factors affecting this situation:
- Some pathological causes such as endometriosis and adenomyosis,
- Hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle. The effects of changes,
- Nutrition, a sedentary life, psychological factors and stress,
- Effects originating from the muscle, ligament, fascia (membrane structure surrounding the outer surface of the muscle) and nerves around the pelvis.
Estrogen levels increase for ovulation in the first half of an average 28-35 day cycle. After ovulation, progesterone levels increase in preparation for fertilization and attachment of the egg. Changes in estrogen or progesterone levels from normal are the hormonal cause of dysmenorrhea. Because the uterus consists of muscles and contracts and relaxes; The change in hormone levels may cause the uterus to contract more strongly and increase pain sensitivity.
Dysmenorrhea is of two types: primary and secondary. Primary is the group that usually starts shortly after the first menstrual period, continues for the first 3 days of bleeding and decreases with age, and is seen without any pathology. Secondary dysmenorrhea can begin at any age after the first menstrual period; Pain before bleeding, throughout bleeding, and after bleeding may increase in intensity and is generally associated with a pathology. The underlying cause in these people is often endometriosis.
Irregular menstrual cycle, excessive bleeding, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, headache, lower back pain, pain radiating to the legs, fatigue and feeling unwell may occur along with chronic menstrual pain.
The most important point in menstrual pain is to find the reasons that may cause and affect the pain from the perspective of a physiotherapist. Taking the person's detailed history and evaluating it in terms of skeletal-muscle-sensory-connective tissue and movement is very valuable to us and indicates key points. However, the pain lasts longer Since the person's pain sensitivity will increase as the years continue, we want to start working as early as possible and move forward.
So, can menstrual pain be relieved with exercise?
Planned by your physiotherapist. With the exercise and lifestyle change program, you start to get results from the first menstrual cycle and you will continue to see the effect increasingly. People who experience chronic menstrual pain often experience a condition that we call overactive, where the pelvic floor carries too much weight. In such a case, instead of strengthening exercises that will tire the child even more, the emphasis should be on exercises that relax the pelvic floor and breathing. Studies have shown that aerobic exercises (increasing heart rate and oxygenation) prevent primary dysmenorrhea and excessive bleeding. However, we do not include every aerobic exercise in the exercise plan during this period. For example, cycling; It is not a type of exercise we recommend in this case, both in terms of position and the pressure on the pelvic floor. In general, we do not recommend intense strengthening exercises and resistance training as they may make the muscles more tired and spasmodic. You can notice relief from the first cycle we mentioned with the special therapeutic exercises for the pelvic floor that we use in physiotherapy.
With the exercise, you can additionally see that fatigue and low motivation are replaced by a state of energy and refreshment that you will feel deeply.
Read: 0
