In sedentary women, aerobic training for 6 months may decrease the typical menopausal symptoms, especially night sweats, mood swings, and irritability

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Stone Hearth News

Menopause. 2012 Feb 13. [Epub ahead of print]

Effect of aerobic training on menopausal symptoms-a randomized controlled trial.

Moilanen JM, Mikkola TS, Raitanen JA, Heinonen RH, Tomas EI, Nygård CH, Luoto RM.

Source

From the 1School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland; 2Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland; 3UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research, Tampere, Finland; 4Tampere University Central Hospital, Tampere, Finland; and 5National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

The aim of this study was to assess whether aerobic training affects menopausal symptoms in recently postmenopausal sedentary women.

METHODS:

Symptomatic women aged 45 to 63 years (N = 176; 3-36 months since last menstruation) were randomly assigned to an aerobic training or a control group. The intervention included unsupervised aerobic training for 50 minutes four times weekly for 24 weeks, whereas the control group attended health lectures twice a month. Symptoms were reported twice a day using a mobile phone. The perceived disturbance of menopausal symptoms (night sweats, mood swings, irritability, depressive mood, headache, vaginal dryness, and urinary symptoms) was evaluated on a scale from 1 (low) to 5 (high). Multilevel mixed-effect ordinal regression models were based on 17,000 responses during 24 weeks.

RESULTS:

One hundred fifty-four women continued until the end of the study (88% compliance rate). Baseline prevalence was as follows: night sweats, 50% to 60%; irritability and depression, 20% to 25%; mood swings, 25% to 30%; headache and urinary problems, 15% to 20%; and vaginal dryness, 10% to 15%. The prevalence of all symptoms except vaginal dryness decreased among intervention groups. According to multilevel mixed-effect ordinal regression analysis, night sweats and mood swings (P < 0.001) and disturbance of the mood swings (P < 0.001) and irritability (P < 0.001) were reduced more among the women in the intervention group than in the control group.

CONCLUSIONS:

In sedentary women, aerobic training for 6 months may decrease the typical menopausal symptoms, especially night sweats, mood swings, and irritability.

PMID:

22334056

[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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