MANUAL THERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF PRIMARY DYSMENORRHEA: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

Introduction: During the fertile period, approximately a million women presents an episode of acute pelvic inflammatory disease, and more than 100,000 women develop infertility as an outcome. Primary dysmenorrhea is a painful, spasmodic and physiological phenomenon, described as a cramp on the lower abdomen, just before and/or during the menstrual period. Among nonpharmacological practices, manual therapy techniques have significant effects on the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea. This study aims to gather scientific evidence in order to identify the possible impacts of Manual Therapy on the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea. Methods: Systematic Review including randomized controlled clinical trials of the LILACS, PubMed, PEDro, Bireme and Cochrane Databases. Results: 55 articles were found, of which 3 met the inclusion criteria. The variables of interest of this study were pain intensity, duration of pain, level of anxiety, pain perception on the lumbar region, pain threshold to pressure, levels of adrenaline, noradrenaline, serotonin, dopamine and decompression of the sacroiliac joint. Conclusion: This research suggests that manual therapy acts in a beneficial way on the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea, showing improvement in all variables studied.