Over 40 million menstruating people worldwide report having premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms. 20% of them have symptoms that significantly affect their daily life, and 90% have more mild premenstrual symptoms —so a super majority of us are affected in one way or another.
There are more than 300 physical, psychological, emotional, behavioral and social symptoms associated with PMS. These symptoms often occur in the Phase Five, just before your period, and include changes in appetite, weight gain, abdominal, back and low back pain, headaches, swelling and tenderness in the breasts, nausea, constipation, anxiety, irritability, anger, fatigue, restlessness, mood swings and crying. We really go through it!
Studies show that exercise is effective in improving physical symptoms such as pain, constipation, breast sensitivity, and psychological symptoms like anxiety and anger. Exercise increases circulating endorphin levels (literally happiness hormones), reduces adrenal cortisol (the stress hormone), and provides a pain-relieving effect!
The best part? In all the people studied, it didn’t matter which type of exercise they chose –they were all effective in improving physical and psychological symptoms!
So go ahead, pick whichever way you like to move your body and let those endorphins do their work!
Science, Love and Feminism.
Hackney, A. C., Kallman, A. L., Ağgön, E. (2019). Female sex hormones and the recovery from exercise: Menstrual cycle phase affects responses. Biomedical human kinetics, 11(1), 87–89.
