Yoga For Endometriosis: What Geeta Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Period pain that stops you in your tracks, pain during sex, a belly that aches for days? For about 1 in 7 Australian women, that is endometriosis. This guide brings together what Mr BKS Iyengar’s teaching, his daughter Geeta Iyengar, the yoga doctors and the research say about yoga for endometriosis, pranayama (yogic breathing), meditation and mindfulness. Last updated: 8 November 2026.

By Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist, Flametree Yoga Darwin.

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Does yoga help endometriosis? The short answer

Yes, yoga for endometriosis is well worth trying. In a Brazilian trial, women who did 8 weeks of yoga had less daily pelvic pain than women who did not. In the largest trial so far, 334 people in Australia, online yoga eased period symptoms and pain during sex. Mindfulness eased pain and lifted mood and quality of life. All the trials tested yoga in general: no trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga for endometriosis.

One thing to keep in mind as you read: every endometriosis trial so far tested yoga in general, taught by teachers with very different training, and the largest was taught online. Where yoga did less well than talking therapy, that was yoga in general. No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga for endometriosis, and not yet tested is not the same as does not work. Iyengar teachers train for years and are assessed by a panel of senior teachers, and in our view as certified Iyengar teachers, well-taught Iyengar yoga is likely to go further than the average. Why the kind of yoga matters.

The bottom line: five key moves for endometriosis

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, two or three times a week. The trials that helped used yoga twice a week for 8 to 12 weeks.
2. Practise with your cycle. In the Iyengar tradition you rest more while your period is on, with supported lying and seated poses, and leave out upside-down and standing poses. Your teacher adjusts the class for you.
3. Add breath work (pranayama). A slow, quiet breath calms the mind and brings stress down. Women in the Brazilian study said the breathing they learned helped them manage their pain.
4. Cut back on what makes it worse. A gripped, braced belly, hard exercise on heavy days, and long hours of sitting or standing still. Yoga teaches you to notice the grip and let it go.
5. Start now. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price, in Darwin or LIVE online.

Who were Mr BKS Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar? Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major teacher who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so a pose can be adapted to a sore or tired body. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. His daughter, Geeta S Iyengar (1944 to 2018), taught alongside him in Pune for more than 50 years and led the tradition’s work on yoga for women. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

This guide in short

• Overall evidence: Moderate. Best study: A 2023 review of 10 studies of mind-body and psychological approaches for endometriosis pain (yoga, mindfulness, relaxation, CBT and education) found that every one of them improved pain, though only five were of good quality. The largest single trial, of 334 people in Australia, found online yoga eased period symptoms and pain during sex compared with reading material.
• Geeta Iyengar: rest during the period, open and soften the lower belly with props, and never grip the womb.
• The Iyengar journal Yoga Rahasya: a full practice for endometriosis, for period days and for the rest of the month.
• Dr Timothy McCall: endometriosis is no. 30 on his list of conditions helped by yoga.
• The research: two randomised yoga trials, mindfulness trials and reviews, all general yoga or mindfulness, not Iyengar yoga.
• Take it further: our free ebook Cutting Stress With Yoga, the 2027 pelvic floor masterclass, and classes in Darwin and online.

“Practice of Yoga should not end in fatigue.”

What endometriosis is

Endometriosis is a long-lasting condition in which tissue like the lining of the womb grows outside the womb: on the ovaries, the fallopian tubes, the ligaments that hold the womb, the bowel or the bladder. Each month this tissue builds up and bleeds as the womb lining does, but the blood has no way out. That can bring severe period pain, pelvic pain between periods, pain during sex, painful bowel movements or passing urine, heavy bleeding, deep tiredness and trouble falling pregnant. A related condition, adenomyosis, is when the same kind of tissue grows into the muscle wall of the womb.

It is common. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) estimates that about 14% of Australian women aged 44 to 49 have endometriosis, about 1 in 7. There were 40,500 hospital stays for it in 2021 to 2022, and people wait an average of 6 to 8 years between the first symptoms and a diagnosis. Many people search simply for “endo” or “endometriosis symptoms”.

Links: period pain, PMS and menstrual problems, pelvic floor, fertility, chronic pain and PCOS.

What did Geeta Iyengar teach about endometriosis?

In short: rest during the period, never grip the womb, and open the lower belly with props. In 2003 Yoga Rahasya, the Iyengar yoga journal published quarterly from Pune by the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, interviewed Geeta S Iyengar on endometriosis. For women’s conditions, her teaching carries as much weight as her father’s. What follows is known from long practice and teacher experience. It has not yet been tested by modern research, and not yet tested is not the same as wrong.

• Rest during the period. She explained that the old custom of women resting during menstruation was not about shutting them out. It gave the body time to recover. No intense practice on those days.
• On period days: seated poses such as Hero Pose (Virasana), Bound Angle Pose (Baddha Konasana) and Seated Wide-Angle Pose (Upavistha Konasana); lying poses such as Reclining Hero and Reclining Bound Angle (Supta Baddha Konasana); supported forward bends; a supported backbend over a bench; and supported Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana).
• No upside-down or standing poses while bleeding. Upside-down poses return as soon as the period stops.
• Never grip the womb. She taught that stress, anger and effort make a woman hold or grip the womb without knowing it, and that standing poses during a period tend to do the same. So the poses chosen are the ones that release that grip.
• Her view of the cause. She believed endometriosis comes from period blood flowing backwards (retrograde menstruation), and that doing upside-down poses during a period may invite it later in life. That is her view. Retrograde menstruation is one of several theories, and no trial has tested her link.

How yoga breaks into the pain and gripping circle

For women who already have endometriosis, she described two stages of work.

• First, opening. Poses that create an opening, a “spreading out”, in the lower belly: Half Moon Pose (Ardha Chandrasana) with the lifted leg supported on a trestle, seated and lying Bound Angle and Wide-Angle poses, and a supported backbend over a bench with the legs in Bound Angle. She stressed feeling a lift in the pelvis. If it is not felt, sit higher, on a bolster or folded blankets.
• Upside-down poses with the legs open, outside the period: rope Headstand with the legs in Bound Angle, and Shoulderstand variations with the legs spread.
• Then, closing. Once the pain has eased, she added a “closing” action, a brick held between the thighs in Headstand, Shoulderstand and the supported backbend, which she taught helps heal scarring. That is her teaching, not tested in a trial.

Her book Yoga: A Gem for Women, one of the first yoga books written for women, has no endometriosis section, but its teaching on painful periods points the same way: rest fully for the 48 to 72 hours of heavy flow, forward bends if you feel tight, and Relaxation Pose (Savasana) with Viloma pranayama, a breath taken in stages (pp. 86 to 87). She writes that Reclining Bound Angle Pose brings relief from uterine pain during periods (p. 157). More of this is in our period pain guide.

“Teachers should watch the throat and abdomen of the students. Both should be completely relaxed.”

A practice for endometriosis from the Iyengar journal

In short: a gentle, supported programme on period days, and a full class with changes for the rest of the month. A second Yoga Rahasya article, “Overcoming the Pain of Endometriosis”, is collected in the journal’s yoga therapy compilation under Mr BKS Iyengar’s name. It makes a point many of us will recognise: “We sit or stand for most of our waking hours”, which, it says, leaves the womb heavy and short of circulation.

• On period days: Staff Pose (Dandasana), Bound Angle and Seated Wide-Angle with the back of the head resting on a chair seat; Reclining Bound Angle on two bolsters laid in a T, with a belt over the groins; and Bridge Pose lying over two crossed bolsters.
• The rest of the month: join the class and do a changed version. Twisting standing poses are left out. Half Moon Pose is done at a trestle, and Warrior III with the chest and the lifted leg resting on stools.
• Upside-down poses are done first with a brick or rolled blanket between the thighs and the legs belted, then with the legs apart and in Bound Angle.
• Forward bends sitting on a bolster or folded blankets; in backbends, the feet raised so the pelvis lifts.
• Left out: Boat Pose (Navasana) unsupported, the lying leg twist (Jathara Parivartanasana), the arm balances, and the strong abdominal locks (Uddiyana and Mula Bandha). No sitting pranayama while bleeding is heavy; lying pranayama only.
• Throat and belly soft. A tense throat means a tense belly, and the other way round, so the teacher watches both.

A senior Iyengar teacher’s sequence for endometriosis

In short: lift the pelvis, spread the legs, and rest. Patricia Walden, a senior Iyengar teacher from the United States who studied for many years with Mr Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar, set out a sequence for endometriosis with Linda Sparrowe in Yoga for a Healthy Menstrual Cycle (pp. 85 to 94). It follows Geeta Iyengar’s principles.

They explain that spreading the legs in the bridge stops the womb muscles gripping and lets the pelvic floor relax, and write that “It’s important to feel a lift in your pelvic region” in the seated poses. The headstand work, with the brick and then the legs open, is only for those who already do headstand, never during a period, and is best learned with a teacher.

What Dr Timothy McCall and the other yoga doctors say

In short: endometriosis is on Dr McCall’s list, and the early research he pointed to found less pain. Dr Timothy McCall, an American medical doctor and yoga therapist who studied with Mr Iyengar and wrote Yoga as Medicine, published a list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga in June 2019. Endometriosis is no. 30. For it he listed the Brazilian yoga trial and the interview study that went with it, both described below. We have not found his own commentary on endometriosis. Our encyclopaedia uses his list as its backbone and builds on it with newer research.

We found nothing on endometriosis in the books we hold by Dr Krishna Raman, a medical doctor from Chennai who studied with Mr Iyengar, or by Dr Loren Fishman, an American doctor who worked with him. Mr Iyengar’s own Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health has no endometriosis course; its nearest entries are menstrual pain (p. 381), menstruation (p. 378) and infertility (p. 394).

What does the research say about yoga for endometriosis?

In short: the trials point one way, and it is a good one. Yoga eased daily pelvic pain, period symptoms and pain during sex. Mindfulness eased pain in one trial and lifted mood and quality of life in several. The largest trial found talking therapy (CBT, cognitive behavioural therapy) did more than yoga on its main scores, and we say so. All of it tested yoga or mindfulness in general, not Iyengar yoga. Why the difference matters.

Reviews of the research

• Every one of 10 studies of mind-body and psychological approaches for endometriosis pain found pain improved: CBT, mindfulness, yoga, education and relaxation. Samami 2023, a review of 10 studies (4 mindfulness, 2 yoga, 2 CBT, 1 education, 1 progressive muscle relaxation). Five were rated good quality, and the authors ask for more high-quality trials. Read the study.
• Early studies of yoga, mindfulness and relaxation showed promise for pain, anxiety, low mood, stress and tiredness in endometriosis. Evans 2019, a review of 9 studies. None yet used gold-standard methods, so no firm conclusion could be drawn. Read the study.
• Body-awareness practices such as yoga and progressive muscle relaxation eased pain and stress and improved quality of life. Tourny 2023, a narrative review, which also advises avoiding intense exercise. Read the study.
• Lifestyle approaches including yoga and mindfulness showed possible benefits for endometriosis pain. Hough 2026, a scoping review of 21 studies from James Cook University in Townsville. The studies varied a lot in size and method. Read the study.

Yoga trials

• Women who did 8 weeks of yoga had less daily pelvic pain than women who did not, and did better on several parts of quality of life, including pain, feeling powerless, well-being and self-image. Goncalves 2017 (published online 2016), a randomised trial of 40 women at the University of Campinas, Brazil, with 90-minute classes twice a week. Period patterns did not change. The groups were uneven (28 yoga, 12 no yoga). Dr McCall lists this trial. Read the study.
• All 15 women interviewed said yoga helped them control pelvic pain. They linked it to the breathing (pranayama) they learned, to body and mind working together, and to the group. Goncalves 2016, interviews with women from the same trial. Several said they used less pain medicine. It reports experience, not a measured result. Read the study.

• Online yoga eased period symptoms and pain during sex compared with emailed reading material, with medium-sized effects. Evans 2026, the HaPPI trial: 334 people with endometriosis pain in Australia, randomly given 8 weeks of online yoga, online CBT or reading material, with blinded assessors. CBT did better than reading material on the main quality-of-life and pain scores; yoga did not clearly do so. The authors suggest yoga may help pelvic health. It was taught online because of COVID-19, and this was yoga in general, not Iyengar yoga. Read the study.
• After 8 weeks of yoga classes designed for endometriosis, pain, stress and heavy bleeding were all lower. Ravins 2023, 42 women in Israel, online classes twice a week. The same women were measured before and after, with no separate comparison group. Read the study.
• 12 weeks of yoga with pelvic floor physiotherapy improved quality of life in every area measured and eased deep pain during sex, in women whose pain had not settled with surgery or hormones. Alboni 2026, the ENDO-GYM programme in Italy, 50 women, looked at afterwards with no comparison group. Read the study.

Iyengar yoga trials

No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga for endometriosis, taught by trained Iyengar teachers. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. What the Iyengar tradition offers is set out above, from Geeta Iyengar and the Iyengar journal.

Breathing and pranayama

• Mindful breathing practice lowered anxiety and low mood and improved quality of life in women with endometriosis. Mansor 2026, 108 women (54 breathing, 54 comparison). The women were not placed in groups at random. Read the study.
• No trial has yet tested classical pranayama on its own for endometriosis. In the Brazilian interview study, women said the breathing they learned in yoga was one of the main ways they managed their pain. We teach slow, nasal pranayama step by step, starting lying down, and the Iyengar journal advises lying pranayama only on heavy days.

Meditation and mindfulness

• A brief mindfulness programme added to usual care eased pain unpleasantness, pelvic pain and painful bowel movements straight away, and eased all endometriosis pain at follow-up, with better mental health and vitality. Moreira 2022, a randomised pilot of 63 women with deep endometriosis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Read the study.
• In the same trial, mindfulness eased pain by easing worry about pain (catastrophising), and lifted mood by more than one route. Moreira 2023, a further analysis of the 63 women. Read the study.
• Mindfulness improved attention and heart rate variability, a heart-rate marker of a calmer nervous system, at rest and after stress. Moreira 2023, a further analysis of 54 of the women. Read the study.
• A mindfulness and acceptance course improved feeling in control, emotional well-being and social support, and eased constipation and painful bowel movements, even though pelvic pain itself did not fall. Hansen 2023, the MY-ENDO trial, 58 women with severe pain in Denmark, against a waiting list. A matched general talking course did as well. Read the study.
• An online mindfulness-based stress reduction course improved quality of life, self-image and social support; pain scores did not change. Miazga 2024, 15 people in Canada, measured before and after. Read the study.

“It is wrong to over-strain.”

Yoga, pranayama and mindfulness: how they work together

Several of the studies above tested a mindfulness programme or mindful breathing, not yoga poses. That still counts for our classes. Mindfulness is steady, present attention, and yoga poses and pranayama (yogic breathing) are old routes to that same state. So the endometriosis research on mindfulness, which eased pain in one trial and lifted mood and quality of life in several, also shows what a good yoga and pranayama class can build. No trial separates which part does the work.

We suggest coming to both a yoga class and a pranayama class. Mr Iyengar taught that asana (poses), pranayama and meditation are not divided, and in our experience the two together do more than either alone. See every class time. We trace the history and the links in Yoga And Mindfulness: Why The Mindfulness Research Points Back To Yoga And The Breath.

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach yoga for endometriosis in Darwin and online.

• Tell your teacher. Let us know you have endometriosis, and when your period is on. The class is changed for you, quietly.
• Period days: supported seated, lying and forward-bending poses instead of standing and upside-down poses.
• The rest of the month: a full class, with props that open the lower belly and keep it soft.
• Props in every class: chairs, belts, blocks, blankets, bolsters, the wall and the ropes.
• Steady, attentive work. Holding a pose gives a busy mind one job to do, which is mindfulness in action.
• Rest and breath to finish: every class ends with supported rest, and our pranayama classes go further.
• Gentle options: restorative yoga and gentle yoga for sore days, and women only classes.

See the timetable and book a class. Body, then breath, then a quieter mind: that is the path a class follows, and it is why we offer poses and breathing together.

Read more on endometriosis and women’s health

• Period pain, PMS and menstrual problems, the guide for painful and heavy periods
• Pelvic floor, for pelvic pain and pain during sex
• Fertility and infertility and PCOS
• Chronic pain, for pain that lasts for months
• Yoga poses for period pain and yoga for the pelvic floor
• Nearby guides: stress and burnout, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia and IBS and digestion

Take it further

This guide gives you the facts on what helps. Stress and pain feed each other in endometriosis, and the mindfulness trials on this page worked on exactly that, so the ebook to start with is our stress book, with the stories of people it has helped. Go and do the free classes, see what you think, and then a pass puts it all into action.

• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See the timetable and book.
• Masterclasses: Yoga for pelvic floors, Sunday 31 January 2027, one of our 2027 masterclasses with Chris Lalor, where you get the poses, sequences and breathing that work with the pelvis and lower belly, where the Iyengar approach to endometriosis is focused. See the 2027 masterclasses.
• Retreats: a week of daily, adapted yoga in Bali. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

Yoga for endometriosis: questions people ask

Can yoga help endometriosis pain?

Yes, it is well worth trying. In a Brazilian trial of 40 women, those who did 8 weeks of yoga had less daily pelvic pain than those who did not (Goncalves 2017). In the HaPPI trial of 334 people in Australia, online yoga eased period symptoms and pain during sex compared with reading material (Evans 2026). A review of 10 studies of mind-body approaches, including yoga and mindfulness, found every one improved pain (Samami 2023).

Can yoga cure endometriosis?

No. Endometriosis is a long-lasting condition, and no practice can promise to remove it. What yoga can do is ease the pain, calm the stress that makes pain feel worse, and help you feel more in control. In the trials, yoga lowered daily pelvic pain and eased period symptoms and pain during sex.

Which yoga poses are good for endometriosis?

In the Iyengar tradition, Geeta Iyengar taught supported poses that open and soften the lower belly: Bound Angle Pose (Baddha Konasana) seated and lying back, Seated Wide-Angle Pose (Upavistha Konasana), supported Bridge Pose over bolsters, and supported forward bends, with a lift felt in the pelvis. Half Moon Pose at a trestle and upside-down poses with the legs open are added outside the period. This is known from practice, not tested in a trial. Your teacher chooses and adapts the poses for you.

Should I do yoga on my period if I have endometriosis?

In the Iyengar tradition, yes, but a different practice: rest more, with supported seated, lying and forward-bending poses, and leave out upside-down and standing poses while you are bleeding. Geeta Iyengar taught this, and believed upside-down poses during a period may invite endometriosis later in life. That is her view; no trial has tested it. Upside-down poses return as soon as the period stops.

Do breathing exercises help endometriosis?

They can. In a study of 108 women with endometriosis, mindful breathing practice lowered anxiety and low mood and improved quality of life (Mansor 2026). Women in the Brazilian yoga study said the breathing they learned was one of the main ways they managed pain (Goncalves 2016). No trial has yet tested classical pranayama on its own. On heavy days, the Iyengar journal advises lying pranayama only.

Does mindfulness help endometriosis?

Yes. A brief mindfulness programme eased pelvic pain, pain unpleasantness and painful bowel movements and improved mental health in 63 women (Moreira 2022). In another trial of 58 women, a mindfulness and acceptance course improved feeling in control and emotional well-being, though pain itself did not fall (Hansen 2023). A good yoga and pranayama class builds the same steady attention.

Is yoga or CBT better for endometriosis?

In the HaPPI trial of 334 people, online CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy, a talking therapy) did better than reading material on the main quality-of-life and pain scores, and online yoga did better on period symptoms and pain during sex (Evans 2026). Both were taught online, and the yoga was yoga in general. In-person Iyengar yoga has not yet been tested. Yoga and a talking therapy can be done together.

Can yoga help pain during sex with endometriosis?

The research says it can. In the HaPPI trial, online yoga eased pain during sex compared with reading material, with a medium-sized effect (Evans 2026). In an Italian programme of yoga with pelvic floor physiotherapy, deep pain during sex eased over 12 weeks in 50 women (Alboni 2026). Our pelvic floor guide covers the pelvic muscles in more detail. Read the pelvic floor guide.

Can I do yoga for endometriosis in Darwin or online?

Yes. Flametree Yoga teaches Iyengar yoga in Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online, with restorative and gentle classes for sore days, women only classes, and pranayama classes for the breath. Tell your teacher you have endometriosis and the class is adapted for you. New students can begin with 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Book a class

Where this comes from: Geeta S Iyengar, interview “Endometriosis: Cause and Treatment”, Yoga Rahasya vol. 10 no. 1 (2003), and Yoga: A Gem for Women (pp. 86 to 87, 92, 157, 262). “Overcoming the Pain of Endometriosis”, Yoga Rahasya yoga therapy compilation (pp. 186 to 191). Linda Sparrowe with Patricia Walden, Yoga for a Healthy Menstrual Cycle (pp. 85 to 94). BKS Iyengar, Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health (pp. 378, 381, 394). Timothy McCall MD, his June 2019 list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga, and Yoga as Medicine (Bantam). Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, endometriosis figures released September 2023. Studies as linked above, each looked up in PubMed in November 2026. Everything is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.