Evidence library · Joint pain

Does walking affect joint pain in menopause? What 6 studies found

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

  1. Postmenopausal women with low bone mass did weight-bearing exercise, aerobic dancing and flexibility work three times weekly for 12 months, and spinal bone density stabilized versus decline in controls, with improved fitness and wellbeing.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 124 women · 52 weeks · 1996PostmenopausalCited 104 timesPubMed

  2. In 62 postmenopausal breast cancer survivors on aromatase inhibitors, a 6-week home walking program reported reduced stiffness and less difficulty with daily activities compared with a wait-list group.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 62 women · 6 weeks · 2017PostmenopausalCited 61 timesPubMed

  3. Perimenopausal women who walked briskly three or more times weekly for 12 weeks reported greater reductions in menopausal symptom scores, cholesterol, triglycerides and weight than controls.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 111 women · 12 weeks · 2014PerimenopausalCited 35 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. Fifty postmenopausal women with osteopenia did 12 weeks of light to moderate aerobic walking; bone formation and resorption markers did not differ from controls, but pain, walking speed and balance improved.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 50 women · 12 weeks · 2025PostmenopausalCited 9 timesPubMed

  6. Postmenopausal female office workers did 12 weeks of Nordic walking and showed improved shoulder flexibility and reduced muscle tenderness compared with controls.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 39 women · 12 weeks · 2017PostmenopausalCited 8 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