Exercise Beneficial to Mental Health of Women With Chronic Pelvic Pain

Positive association seen for physical functioning with global mental health T-score; negative association seen for pain with GMH-T

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, March 4, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Engaging in physical activity seems to be beneficial to the mental health of women with chronic pelvic pain disorders (CPPD), according to a study published online Feb. 26 in the Journal of Pain Research.

Emily L. Leventhal, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues examined the association between mental health, pain, and physical activity in women with CPPD. The study sample included 4,270 person-level days and 799 person-level weeks of data from 76 participants with CPPD. Global mental health (GMH) and physical functioning and pain were recorded weekly for 14 weeks; activity trackers were used to passively obtain moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).

The researchers found that MVPA was a significant curvilinear predictor of GMH T-scores (GMH-T), with the prediction independent of measures of pain and prior psychiatric diagnoses. There was a positive association for physical functioning with GMH-T, while a negative association was seen for pain with GMH-T.

“By leveraging patient-tracked mental health and pain outcomes combined with passively obtained activity data from CPPD patients, we demonstrate a positive, nonlinear relationship between physical activity and mental health in female CPPDs,” the authors write.