Exercise Intervention in Adolescent Premenstrual Syndrome: A Comprehensive Review

Many women experience physical or psychological changes during the days leading up to menstruation. When these symptoms persist during each menstrual cycle and significantly impact a woman's daily life, they are clinically referred to as premenstrual syndrome (PMS). It is estimated that more than 75% of adult women experience premenstrual symptoms, increasing the need for medical treatment for PMS. Comprehensive understanding of exercise effects on PMS and premenstrual symptoms might help for specialists in sports sciences. We conducted searches in global databases, which encompassed PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science Direct. Keywords included “premenstrual syndrome”, “premenstrual symptoms”, “adolescent”, and “exercise”. Two authors conducted article screening, and these authors extracted all studies examining the effects of exercise on premenstrual symptoms from the eligible literature, irrespective of the specific type of exercise. This study generated 13 studies met our inclusion criteria. All exercises appear to reduce PMS and premenstrual symptoms. The prevalence of PMS ranges from 10% to 75% in adolescents. The most widely used exercise form of intervention to reduce PMS and premenstrual symptoms is stretching exercise. Exercise can alleviate PMS and premenstrual symptoms regardless of exercise time and frequency. Exercise proves to be a successful intervention for alleviating PMS and premenstrual symptoms in adolescents. The lack of sufficient research on the effects of exercise dose at school for premenstrual symptoms in adolescents. Further high-quality research is needed to provide evidence-based policy recommendations concerning the efficacy of exercise.