Forum Talk: The swimming habits of women who cold water swim and how they feel it affects their menstrual and menopause symptoms
Speaker: Joyce Harper, Professor of Reproductive Science Reproductive Health, University College London
Background: This is the first study to ask women who swim about their swimming habits and the effect swimming has on their menstrual and menopause symptoms.
Methods: An online survey was advertised for 2 months on social media, concentrating on Facebook groups involved in cold water swimming.
Results: 1114 women participated. Most had been swimming for 1-5 years (79.5%), swim in the sea (64.4%), all year around, (89.0%), and mostly wearing skins. They reported that cold water swimming reduced their menstrual symptoms; notably psychological symptoms such as: anxiety (46.7%), mood swings (37.7%) and irritability (37.6%). Perimenopausal women reported a significant improvement in anxiety (46.9%), mood swings (34.5%), low mood (31.1%) and hot flushes (30.3%). Women said they felt it was the physical and mental effects of the cold water that helped their symptoms. For the free text question, five themes were identified about their symptoms: the calming and mood-boosting effect of the water, companionship and community, period improvements, an improvement in hot flushes, and an overall health improvement.
Conclusion: Women felt that cold-water swimming had a positive effect on their symptoms. Studies on other forms of exercise to relieve menstrual and perimenopause symptoms may show similar findings.
