In the authors' words
“At 12 weeks, yoga practitioners showed statistically lower scores for menopausal symptoms, stress levels and depression symptoms, as well as significantly higher scores in quality of life when compared to control and exercise groups.”
What was measured
- Menopause symptoms overall Reported an improvement
- Mood Reported an improvement
- Quality of life Reported an improvement
- Hormone levels Mixed results
About the study
- Type
- Randomised trial
- Who took part
- Postmenopausal
- How many
- 88
- How long
- 12 weeks
- Exercise
- Yoga, Other aerobic exercise
- Cited
- 48 times, per Europe PMC
- PubMed ID
- 27261993
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.
Similar studies
- A meta-analysis of 13 RCTs with 1306 women found yoga reduced total menopausal symptoms, including vasomotor and psychological symptoms, compared to no treatment, similar to other exercise.
- A meta-analysis of 11 trials found mind-body exercises like tai chi, yoga, and qigong improved bone density, sleep quality, anxiety, depression, and fatigue in peri- and postmenopausal women.
- A meta-analysis of six RCTs in inactive postmenopausal women found combined exercise and reduced calorie diet, lasting 16 to 52 weeks, lowered estrogen and testosterone levels more than exercise alone.
- An umbrella review and meta-analysis of yoga trials in peri- and postmenopausal women found yoga reduced hot flushes and psychological symptoms compared with controls, with quality of life rarely reported.