The influence of the Pilates method on muscular flexibility, symptoms, and quality of life in women with primary dysmenorrhea

Aims: To investigate the influence of Pilates on muscular flexibility, symptoms, and quality of life in women with primary dysmenorrhea. Methods: An uncontrolled clinical trial was conducted with 10 university students aged 18 to 25 years with primary dysmenorrhea who participated in an exercise protocol based on the Pilates method. The protocol included thirteen 50-minute floor and ball exercises three times a week for seven weeks. Participants were assessed before and after seven weeks for muscular flexibility by the fingertip-to-floor test, for pain by the visual analog scale, and for quality of life by the Short Form-36 health survey. Data were analyzed with Bioestat (R) and presented as mean and standard deviation. After the Shapiro-Wilk test, either Student's t test or Wilcoxon test was applied, and statistical significance was attained when p<0.05. Results: The assessments before and after the Pilates sessions showed an increase in flexibility, characterized by reduction in the fingertip-to-floor distance (p=0.007). Pain decreased both in intensity (7.5 +/- 1.6 to 4.5 +/- 3.2, p=0.005) and in length (45.6 +/- 19.4 to 21.6 +/- 16.7 hours p=0.007); the most prevalent symptoms were relieved - fatigue (from 90 to 60), irritability (from 80 to 50%), and headache (from 50 to 20%); and medication use was reduced from 80 to 40%. The Short Form-36 showed a significant increase in quality of life scores in three of eight domains: pain (45.2 +/- 13.5 to 59.3 +/- 22.0; p=0.022), general health (68.7 +/- 14.9 to 80.6 +/- 16.0; p=0.035), and mental health (62 +/- 18.5 to 73.2 +/- 14.3; p=0.038). Conclusions: In addition to pain relief, Pilates exercises improved muscular flexibility, reduced pain and discomfort associated with dysmenorrhea, and had a positive influence on quality of life, proving to be an effective alternative for the symptomatic treatment of primary dysmenorrhea.