Effects of offerent short-term exercise approaches on menopausal symptoms, psychological health and quality of life in postmenopasusal women

This study was designed to determine effects of different short-termexercise approaches on menopausal symptoms, psychological health andquality of life in postmenopausal women. The Department of Gynecology andObstetrics participated 36 women. These cases were randomly divided intoaerobic or resistance exercise groups. Cases were taken exercise for 8 weeks,3 days per week, under the supervision of a physiotherapist. Aerobic exercisetraining was performed by bicycle ergometer. Before and after training, serumtotal cholestrol, HDL, LDL and triglycerides levels were measured, andmenopausal symptoms, psychological health, depression and the quality of lifewere assessed by questionnaires. Exercise in both groups, serum totalcholesterol, HDL, LDL and trigIyceride leves no significant change wasobserved. In the resistance exercise group, excluding the urogenital complaints,there were significant improvements in all subscales of Menopausal RatingScale (MRS). In the aerobic exercise group, there were significantimprovements in all subscales of MRS. In the resistance exercise group,excluding the phobic anxiety, there were significant improvements in allsubscales of The Symptom Checklist. In the aerobic exercise group,improvements in all sub-scales of The Symptom Checklist were significant.Depression levels significantly decreased in both groups. Improvement ofmenopausal- specific quality of life questionnaire in both groups, except forsexual symptoms, were observed in all subscales. As a result, resistanceexercise and aerobic exercise were found to have a positive impact onmenopausal symptoms, psychological health, depression and quality of life.Keywords: Postmenopause, aerobic training, resistance training,depression, quality of life.