In this study the researchers aimed to determine the effect of abdominal massage and stretching exercises on the severity of pain, dysmenorrhea symptoms and menstrual blood lost in university students. In this single-blind randomized controlled clinical trial 63 university students were included. Participants were randomly assigned into massage group, exercise and control groups. Our findings showed that the 2nd cycle scores related to abdominal-back pain and fatigue in the massage group and 2nd cycle scores related to mood change in the exercise group were significantly lower than those of the massage and control groups. However, there was no difference between groups in terms of the Visual Analogue Scale scores and blood lost. Our evidence indicates that massage was effective on abdominal-back pain and weakness, and exercise was effective on mood change.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03821207.