Physical activity and endometriosis risk in women with infertility or pain

Elena Ricci, Paola Viganò, Sonia Cipriani, Francesca Chiaffarino, Francesça Chiaffarino, Stefano Bianchi, Giorgia Rebonato, Fabio Parazzini
Medicine · 2016 · vol. 95(40) , pp. e4957 · doi:10.1097/md.0000000000004957 · PMID:27749551 · W2528039318
review OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 39 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This meta-analysis of observational studies found that physical activity may reduce endometriosis risk, though the association was not conclusive due to potential confounding factors.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The potential association between endometriosis and physical activity (PA) has been suggested in several epidemiological studies.We aimed to establish whether PA influences endometriosis risk. METHODS: MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched using "physical activity" OR "exercise" combined with "endometriosis," in Medical Subject Headings and free text. We selected original articles in English, published up to April 2016, evaluating the association between endometriosis and recent or past PA (case-control or cohort studies). References of retrieved papers were reviewed. We computed summary odds ratios (ORs) of endometriosis for recent and past PA. RESULTS: Six case-control and 3 cohort studies included 3355 cases for recent PA and 4600 cases for past PA. The summary OR for endometriosis according to PA level, calculated by the random-effect model, was 0.85 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.67-1.07] for any recent versus no PA. As compared to no recent PA, ORs for low and moderate/high PA were 1.00 (95% CI: 0.68-1.28) and 0.75 (95% CI: 0.53-1.07), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Though it suggests that PA may reduce the risk of endometriosis, this meta-analysis does not conclusively support the hypothesis. Whether our findings are really explained by the benefit of exercise at molecular and endocrine level, or related to confounding mechanisms, such as study design, choice of controls, and PA potentially improving pain, needs to be further investigated.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Exercise Infertility Pain Endometriosis Exercise Female Humans Infertility Pain

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (38)

Cited by (39)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:20:49.724109+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK