Evidence library · Hormone levels

Does aerobic plus resistance affect hormone levels in menopause? What 10 studies found

Studies of aerobic plus resistance in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured hormone levels. 2 reported an improvement and 5 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. A network meta-analysis of 39 trials in postmenopausal women with overweight or obesity found resistance training lowered CRP most, combined training lowered IL-6 and TNF-alpha, and leptin did not change.

    No difference foundMeta-analysis · 2,714 participants pooled · 2026PostmenopausalPubMed

  2. 189 sedentary postmenopausal women did a 1 year combined aerobic and strength program and overall showed no favorable change in sex hormone levels compared to controls.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 189 women · 52 weeks · 2009PostmenopausalCited 69 timesPubMed

  3. Postmenopausal women who did 12 months of resistance and weight-bearing aerobic exercise gained lean mass and lost leg fat, regardless of hormone therapy use or changes in hormone levels.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 94 women · 52 weeks · 2003PostmenopausalCited 63 timesPubMed

  4. Healthy women aged 50 to 65 did 12 weeks of combined aerobic plus resistance training or aerobic training alone, and combined training improved growth hormone, body fat, glucose and blood pressure more.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 22 women · 12 weeks · 2010Midlife womenCited 40 timesPubMed

  5. Over 12 weeks, obese postmenopausal women doing endurance or concurrent aerobic and resistance training reduced fat mass, with concurrent training also increasing lean mass and differing effects on sex hormones like testosterone.

    Mixed resultsRandomised trial · 35 women · 12 weeks · 2020PostmenopausalCited 22 timesPubMed

  6. In middle-aged obese women, 12 weeks of circuit exercise combining aerobic and resistance training reduced body weight, body fat and insulin resistance compared to no significant change in controls.

    Mixed resultsRandomised trial · 26 women · 12 weeks · 2018Midlife womenCited 21 timesPubMed

  7. Midlife women aged 42 to 52 did 6 months of combined aerobic and resistance training, and researchers found improved insulin sensitivity compared to a sedentary control group.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 28 women · 26 weeks · 2014Midlife womenCited 11 timesPubMed

  8. Middle-aged women with subclinical hypothyroidism or obesity did 12 weeks of combined resistance and aerobic training, improving body fat, fitness and blood pressure but not thyroid hormones or lipids.

    No difference foundControlled trial · 40 women · 12 weeks · 2019Midlife womenCited 15 timesPubMed

  9. In a 12-week trial, sedentary postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes who did combined aerobic and resistance training showed increased adropin levels and reduced arterial stiffness compared with usual care.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 30 women · 12 weeks · 2026PostmenopausalPubMed

  10. Twenty-nine postmenopausal women did 24 weeks of alternating aerobic and resistance training, which increased limb bone density and circulating irisin while waist circumference decreased.

    Mixed resultsBefore-and-after study · 29 women · 24 weeks · 2025PostmenopausalCited 4 timesPubMed

How to read this. Each line is one study, summarised in plain language from its PubMed abstract, with the authors' own sentence underneath on the study page. A count of studies is not a verdict: trials differ in size, length and quality, and a result in one group of women may not hold in another. Nothing here is medical advice.

Summaries are generated, then checked by machine against the abstract they came from; any summary that could not be matched word for word was left out. Our clinical lead is reviewing the summaries topic by topic, and this note will change when that is done. Corpus last refreshed 2026-11-03. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix the summary or remove the study.

Other exercise types and hormone levels