In the authors' words
“Compared to no-treatment control, exercise significantly improved severity of vasomotor symptoms (10 studies, standardized mean difference [SMD] = 0.25; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.04 to 0.47, p = 0.02, very low certainty of evidence); the effect size was attenuated when studies with a high risk of bias were excluded (SMD = 0.11, 95% CI: -0.03 to 0.26, p = 0.13).”
What was measured
- Hot flushes Mixed results
About the study
- Type
- Meta-analysis
- Who took part
- Midlife women
- How many
- 2,884
- Exercise
- Other aerobic exercise, General physical activity
- Cited
- 29 times, per Europe PMC
- PubMed ID
- 35904028
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 Cochrane review of five trials in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women found insufficient evidence that exercise reduces hot flushes or night sweats compared with no treatment, yoga, or hormone therapy.
- A meta-analysis of nine randomized trials found exercise, especially yoga, improved physical and psychological quality of life in women with menopausal symptoms, but not general or menopause-specific scores.
- A meta-analysis of nine trials with 1579 women with hot flushes found physical activity did not significantly improve sleep quality or insomnia but produced minor improvement in sleep problems.
- A meta-analysis of six RCTs found insufficient evidence that exercise reduces hot flushes and night sweats in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, or that it outperforms hormone therapy or yoga.