Evidence library · Quality of life

Does exercise with hormone therapy affect quality of life in menopause? What 6 studies found

Studies of exercise with hormone therapy in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured quality of life. 4 reported an improvement and 0 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. Sedentary postmenopausal women with hot flushes exercised three times weekly for 12 weeks; flush frequency decreased in some women and wellbeing improved, though less than with oestradiol therapy.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 30 women · 12 weeks · 2004PostmenopausalCited 69 timesPubMed

  2. Postmenopausal women on hormone therapy did 6 weeks of submaximal aerobic exercise three times weekly and showed improved strength, endurance, flexibility, balance and quality of life versus controls.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 81 women · 6 weeks · 2004PostmenopausalCited 48 timesPubMed

  3. In 44 postmenopausal women after hysterectomy, 6 months of moderate aerobic exercise improved quality of life and reduced menopausal symptoms regardless of whether estrogen therapy was also taken.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 44 women · 26 weeks · 2008PostmenopausalCited 43 timesPubMed

  4. A scoping review of 20 studies found resistance training combined with impact activity improved bone density in menopausal women, with greater benefit when combined with hormone therapy than either alone.

    Direction not statedSystematic review · 2025Midlife womenCited 5 timesPubMed

  5. Postmenopausal women with stress urinary incontinence who did pelvic floor training plus electrical stimulation and biofeedback for 6 months improved more when intravaginal estriol was added.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 62 women · 26 weeks · 2015PostmenopausalCited 12 timesPubMed

  6. This is a trial protocol for 80 Japanese women over 65 with knee osteoarthritis combining oestrogen gel with 12 weeks of muscle resistance exercise, with no results reported yet.

    Direction not statedOther · 80 women · 12 weeks · 2023PostmenopausalCited 7 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.

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