Effectiveness of Pilates Exercises in the Treatment of Dysmenorrhea: A Randomized Controlled Trial

November 14, 2025 updated by: Doç.Dr.Ömer Şevgin, Uskudar University
The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of Pilates exercises in the treatment of dysmenorrhea and to contribute to the literature and information on this subject.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The study was planned as a randomized controlled study. The study will be conducted at the Fizyorapt physiotherapy and exercise consultancy center. It will be divided into 2 main groups as those between the ages of 18-50, those with a menstrual period of 3-9 days, those with menstrual pain complaints, and those who cooperate in completing the assessment scales. Participants will be asked to continue the given exercises for 6 weeks, 2 days a week and 45 minutes. People with psychological and physical disabilities will not be included in regular exercise. A personal information form will be prepared by the researcher in order to collect data on the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. Visual analog scale (VAS) will be used to measure pain intensity and pain relief, Beck depression scale to determine depression symptoms, and menstruation symptom scale to evaluate menstrual pain and symptoms. These surveys will be repeated before and at the end of the study. The data to be obtained will be evaluated using the SPSS24 package program.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

56

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Female individuals between the ages of 18-50
  • Those with a menstrual period of 3-9 days
  • Having menstrual pain complaints in most of their menstrual cycles
  • Cooperating in completing the assessment scales

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Having a history of abdominal surgery
  • Having an active infection

  • Having knee pain

    -. Using medication

  • Participants with any pathology that prevents exercise will not be included in the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: control group
those who did not receive any intervention
Other: control
There is no intervention
Experimental: reformer exercise group
They will practice reformer pilates exercises
Other: reformer

Reformer exercises:

Foodwork Swan Short Spin Long Stretch Keen Stretch Hug Tree Bridge Pulling Straps Short Box Abdominal Hundred Twist Star
Experimental: mat exercise group
They will practice mat pilates exercises
Other: mat

Mat exercises:

Neck exercises Trunk stabilization exercises Shoulder exercises Posture exercises

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Menstruation Symptom Scale
Time Frame: 14 weeks
It is a 5-point Likert-type scale and consists of three sub-parameters: 'negative effects/somatic effects', 'menstrual pain' and 'coping methods', and 22 items. The person is asked to give a score between '1' never and '5' always for the symptoms they experience related to menstruation. The Menstruation Symptom Scale (MSS) score is calculated by taking the total score average. An increase in the mean score indicates an increase in the severity of menstrual symptoms.
14 weeks
Visual Analogue Scale
Time Frame: 14 weeks
Participants were included in the "healthy" category when they marked the 0-1 range of the scale, and were included in the "Menstruation pain" category when they marked the 1.1-10 range. They were divided into 3 groups according to pain severity. 1.1-3: Mild pain, 3.1-7: Moderate pain, 7.1-10: Severe pain.
14 weeks
Fatigue Severity Scale
Time Frame: 14 weeks
It consists of 9 questions. Each question is scored between 1 and 7. Statements Regarding Scoring 1. I strongly disagree 3. I tend to disagree 5. I tend to agree 2. I disagree 4. I am undecided 6. I agree 7. I strongly agree. ) the score of the answers given to the question is added and divided by 9. If the result is less than 2.8, it is evaluated as "no fatigue". If the result is greater than 6.1, it is considered as "chronic fatigue syndrome
14 weeks
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index
Time Frame: 14 weeks
It was developed by Buysse et al. (1989) (34). The scale is a safe and consistent questionnaire that evaluates the amount of sleep, sleep quality, presence and severity of sleep disorders in individuals in the last month. It was adapted into Turkish by Ağargün et al. (1996) (35). There are seven components in Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index. These components are subjective sleep quality (component 1), sleep latency (component 2), sleep duration (component 3), habitual sleep efficiency (component 4), sleep disturbance (component 5), sleep medication use (component 6) and daytime dysfunction. (component 7). The evaluation score of each item is between 0-3. The total score obtained varies between 0-21. The higher the score, the worse the sleep quality.
14 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Uskudar University

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Sümeyye Postacı, Uskudar University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 15, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 20, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

June 10, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 8, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 8, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

January 14, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 17, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 14, 2025

Last Verified

November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Uskudar19

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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