Evidence library · Hormone levels

Does yoga affect hormone levels in menopause? What 7 studies found

Studies of yoga in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured hormone levels. 4 reported an improvement and 2 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. Obese postmenopausal Korean women did 16 weeks of yoga exercise and showed reduced body fat, blood pressure and insulin resistance, with increased HDL cholesterol and adiponectin, versus a no-exercise control group.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 16 women · 16 weeks · 2012PostmenopausalCited 75 timesPubMed

  2. In an 88 woman 12 week RCT, postmenopausal women practicing Hatha yoga reported lower menopausal symptom and depression scores and higher quality of life than control and exercise groups.

    Mixed resultsRandomised trial · 88 women · 12 weeks · 2016PostmenopausalCited 48 timesPubMed

  3. In an RCT of 80 menopausal women, one year of Sudarshan Kriya Yoga improved vasomotor, psychosocial and physical quality of life domains more than brisk walking, with no change in reproductive hormones.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 80 women · 52 weeks · 2021Midlife womenCited 13 timesPubMed

  4. Sixty-four postmenopausal women received self-care education combined with laughter yoga, which authors reported reduced menopausal symptoms, perceived stress, and salivary cortisol compared to controls.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 64 women · 2026PostmenopausalPubMed

  5. In 16 postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis, 10 weeks of yoga classes reduced pain and depression scores and improved balance, with no significant change in cortisol patterns.

    No difference foundBefore-and-after study · 16 women · 10 weeks · 2009PostmenopausalCited 38 timesPubMed

  6. A quasi-experimental trial found 6 to 24 months of Shivam Yoga practice in women aged 40-65 reduced climacteric symptom scores and increased estrogen and testosterone levels versus controls.

    Reported an improvementControlled trial · 182 women · 104 weeks · 2026Midlife womenPubMed

  7. Over 24 months, climacteric women practicing yoga showed reduced BMI, body fat, blood pressure and fasting glucose, and higher HDL and estradiol, compared with sedentary controls.

    Reported an improvementControlled trial · 182 women · 104 weeks · 2026Midlife womenPubMed

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.

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