The relationship among exercise, stress, and primary dysmenorrhea.

This study considers primary dysmenorrhea from a biopsychosocial perspective in examining the relationship between physical exercise and menstrual pain. Despite widespread claims of the benefits of exercise for perimenstrual symptoms, the evidence seems weak. Stronger evidence indicates that exercise helps relieve stress and elevates mood and that stress heightens menstrual discomfort. Student nurses (n = 176) completed a questionnaire disguised as a general health survey that contained these measures. The hierarchial regression analysis demonstrated that, contrary to the expected, regular exercise increased with the severity of menstrual symptoms, after controlling for medications, disposition, perceived stress, and mood. The findings suggest that exercise presents a tradeoff; it relieves the stress that may intensify dysmenorrhea, yet it may aggravate these same symptoms.