Evidence library · Joint pain

Does exercise with supplements affect joint pain in menopause? What 7 studies found

Studies of exercise with supplements in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured joint pain. 4 reported an improvement and 3 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. A review of seven trials with 400 women found exercise therapies showed very uncertain or little effect on joint pain, stiffness, grip strength or quality of life from aromatase inhibitor side effects.

    No difference foundMeta-analysis · 400 participants pooled · 2020PostmenopausalCited 36 timesPubMed

  2. Postmenopausal women who practiced a modified Eight-Section Brocade exercise for 12 months, with or without calcium, had increased bone density, less back pain and better balance than controls.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 198 women · 52 weeks · 2015PostmenopausalCited 36 timesPubMed

  3. In 407 overweight women aged 50 to 60 followed 2.5 years, a diet and exercise program did not reduce the risk of developing knee osteoarthritis, unlike glucosamine sulfate.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 407 women · 130 weeks · 2016Midlife womenCited 14 timesPubMed

  4. Postmenopausal women with knee osteoarthritis did 12 weeks of resistance training with creatine or placebo; creatine group showed greater gains in physical function, lean mass and quality of life.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 12 weeks · 2011PostmenopausalCited 52 timesPubMed

  5. Early postmenopausal women who did high-resistance strength training and high-impact aerobics for 3 years maintained bone density at the spine and hip, unlike controls who lost bone.

    Reported an improvementControlled trial · 78 women · 156 weeks · 2006Early postmenopausalCited 85 timesPubMed

  6. Thirty-six middle-aged women with sarcopenia did 12 weeks of resistance exercise with or without nitrate supplementation after knee surgery, and nitrate plus exercise improved muscle mass and strength more.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 36 women · 12 weeks · 2025Midlife womenCited 2 timesPubMed

  7. Postmenopausal women with knee osteoarthritis did 24 weeks of home leg exercises with or without vitamin D3 or E, and all groups improved in symptoms and strength with no added benefit from supplements.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 80 women · 24 weeks · 2026PostmenopausalPubMed

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 joint pain