--- title: Does swimming reduce premenstrual syndrome symptoms? | Niyora description: Yes. Swimming significantly reduced anxiety, depression, cramps, headaches, and most other PMS symptoms, but it did not help irritability or food cravings. url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/effect-of-swimming-exercise-on-premenstrual-syndrome-2018/ --- - [Niyora](https://niyora.com/) - [Research](https://niyora.com/research/) - [Library](https://niyora.com/research/library/) - Does swimming reduce premenstrual syndrome symptoms? Randomised trial, 2018 # Does swimming reduce premenstrual syndrome symptoms? Yes. Swimming significantly reduced anxiety, depression, cramps, headaches, and most other PMS symptoms, but it did not help irritability or food cravings. Moderate study design 70 women with premenstrual syndrome ## What they did 70 women with PMS were randomly divided into two equal groups. One group did swimming exercise and the other did nothing. Both groups filled out daily symptom reports at the start and end of the study. ## What they found The swimming group had significantly lower symptom counts than the control group (P < 0.001). Key improvements in swimmers included: depression decreased by 79.29 percent compared to 15.56 percent in controls, feeling out of control decreased by 91.67 percent, anxiety decreased by 33.3 percent, and significant improvements in tension, confusion, headaches, and cramps. No significant difference for irritability, crying, or food cravings. ## What it means for you Swimming may help most PMS symptoms. However, the study does not say how often or how long women swam, and what the control group did during the study period. More detailed research is needed. 70 women studied -79.29% depression improvement in swimmers -91.67% feeling out of control improvement ## About the study Original title Effect of swimming exercise on premenstrual syndrome Authors Maged AM, Abbassy AH, Sakr HRS et al. Journal Archives of gynecology and obstetrics Year 2018 Study design Randomised trial Participants 70 What was tested Swimming exercise Read the paper [doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4664-1](https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4664-1) ## Topics [Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Low mood and depression](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-depression-mood/)[Anxiety and tension](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-anxiety/)[Irritability and anger](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-irritability-anger/)[Sleep and insomnia](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-sleep/)[Fatigue and energy](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-fatigue/)[Appetite and food cravings](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-food-cravings/)[Bloating, breast tenderness and physical symptoms](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-physical-symptoms/)[Pain and headache](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-pain/)[Exercise and yoga](https://niyora.com/research/topics/treatment-exercise/) Research tells you what helps on average. Niyora helps on the day it hits. Calm down, see it another way, and decide what to say, with a PMS and PMDD app built by a doctor. ## Related studies Randomised trial, 2021 Does hypnotherapy reduce pain and emotional distress in women with PMDD? Survey study, 2016 Do hormonal contraceptives reduce PMS symptoms? Survey study, 2017 Are PMS symptoms linked to mood disorders and personality? Study, 2026 What are premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder? Survey study, 1982 How common are premenstrual symptoms in American women, and what factors affect them? Survey study, 2026 How common is PMDD in Russian medical students, and what are its symptoms? Ask AI about this page Copy prompt ChatGPT ↗ Claude ↗ Perplexity ↗ Google AI Mode ↗ Grok ↗