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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Physical Activity in the Prevention and Management of Disease
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1494460
This article is part of the Research Topic Stress in young people: Sports and relaxation techniques for self-management of stress View all articles

Moving beyond pain: the relationship between physical activity and physical self-concept among young women with endometriosis

Provisionally accepted
Samantha Coquinos Samantha Coquinos 1,2*Alexandre Oboeuf Alexandre Oboeuf 1,2Damien VITIELLO Damien VITIELLO 1,2
  • 1 Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
  • 2 Laboratoire I3SP, Paris, France

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Endometriosis is a painful non-curable disease that affects women's quality of life, reducing their self-esteem and consequently their mental well-being. However, enhancing the physical self-concept could induce the development of the self-esteem. A suitable method to increase the physical self-concept would be physical activity (PA). The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between PA and physical self-concept in women with endometriosis under 30 years old and to evaluate whether the type of PA was associated with different physical self-concept scores. Material and Methods: A total of 198 women under 30 diagnosed with endometriosis responded to a survey. Physical self-concept was assessed using the short version of the physical self-description questionnaire. Women were also asked to answer to questions about their PA habits. The type of PA practiced was then assigned to 1 of 3 following groups: relaxing activities (n=14), activities without necessary interactions with other participants (n=58), and activities including necessary interactions with other participants (n=46). Results: Women under 30 years old participating in a regular PA (more than once a week) (n=137) had a significantly higher physical self-concept than women not participating in a regular PA (n=61) (p<0.05). Results differed in physical self-concept sub-scales. The type of PA did not seem to make a difference in physical self-concept scores (p>0.05). Conclusion: Young women with endometriosis should be advised to participate to a regular PA to increase their physical self-concept and therefore cope better with their anxiety and stress. All types of activities appear to be just as relevant for developing physical self-concept in young women with endometriosis.

    Keywords: Endometriosis1, physical activity2, physical self-concept3, mental well-being4, quality of life5

    Received: 10 Sep 2024; Accepted: 08 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Coquinos, Oboeuf and VITIELLO. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Samantha Coquinos, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.