Physical Therapy Management of Dysmenorrhea-Associated Pelvic Pain in Adolescent and Young Adult Females: A Scoping Review
Kristen Cook, Christine Mansfield, Riley Summers, Anna Biszaha, Gabriel Alain, Catherine Quatman-YatesBackground:
Dysmenorrhea-related pelvic pain is common among young females and can negatively impact their quality of life.
Objectives:
To identify and synthesize interventions, outcomes, and gaps that fall within the physical therapy scope of practice for adolescent girls with dysmenorrhea-related pelvic pain.
Study Design:
Scoping review.
Methods:
PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, Cochrane, Scopus, and PEDro databases were systematically searched through October 20, 2021. Inclusion criteria entailed the following: (1) written in English, (2) published between 2001 and 2021, (3) peer-reviewed, (4) investigated a physical therapeutic intervention, and (5) mean age of study participants between 13 and 24 years.
Results:
The combined search yielded 16 000 articles, of which 58 articles were ultimately included. Physical therapy interventions studied in the identified articles included cardiovascular-based exercise, dry needling, integrative health approaches, isometric exercises, Kinesio Taping, manual therapy/massage, multimodal intervention programs, strengthening, stretching, thermotherapy, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. Stretching, integrative health approaches, cardiovascular-based exercise, and a combination of modalities were the most studied interventions for dysmenorrhea-related pelvic pain. A synthesis of the included studies indicated there were statistically and clinically significant results supporting all the interventions studied. However, there were limited studies directly comparing intervention types to one another.
Conclusion:
Various physical therapy interventions may be effective in decreasing dysmenorrhea-related pelvic pain and improving the quality of life among young females.