Evidence library · Joint pain

Does general physical activity affect joint pain in menopause? What 6 studies found

Studies of general physical activity in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured joint pain. 5 reported an improvement and 1 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. A meta-analysis of 4 trials in 256 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis or osteopenia found exercise programmes improved physical function, pain, role physical and vitality quality-of-life domains.

    Reported an improvementMeta-analysis · 256 participants pooled · 2009PostmenopausalCited 55 timesPubMed

  2. Sedentary women with osteoporosis did a 6 month self-management and activity program, which improved pain, quality of life, balance and function versus control.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 50 women · 26 weeks · 2007PostmenopausalCited 24 timesPubMed

  3. Postmenopausal women with mild knee osteoarthritis who reported more leisure physical activity over 12 months showed greater increases in cartilage glycosaminoglycan content on MRI.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 76 women · 52 weeks · 2017PostmenopausalCited 15 timesPubMed

  4. Healthy postmenopausal Italian women did a 24-month moderate physical activity program, and low back pain prevalence fell in the exercise group but showed no significant between-group effect.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 210 women · 104 weeks · 2017PostmenopausalCited 10 timesPubMed

  5. Among 305 Turkish women aged 45 to 60, physically active women reported lower total menopausal symptom scores, including sleep, sexual, joint and psychological symptoms, than less active women.

    Reported an improvementCross-sectional study · 305 women · 2014Midlife womenCited 22 timesPubMed

  6. This review reported that exercise interventions in postmenopausal breast cancer patients on aromatase inhibitors improved body composition, joint pain, and overall quality of life.

    Reported an improvementOther · 2020PostmenopausalCited 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 joint pain