Body composition, physical activity, and menopause symptoms: how do they relate?

Area of Science:

• Reproductive Endocrinology
• Exercise Physiology
• Menopause Studies

Background:

• Menopausal symptoms significantly impact women's quality of life.
• Understanding the interplay between physical activity, body composition, and menopausal symptoms is crucial for developing effective management strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between physical activity levels (light, moderate, vigorous), body composition (percent body fat [%BF], fat-free mass index), and total menopausal symptoms (TMSs).
• To determine the predictive power of %BF and vigorous activity on TMSs across premenopausal, perimenopausal (PERI), and postmenopausal stages.

Main Methods:

• Utilized wearable fitness trackers to quantify daily active minutes.
• Assessed body composition using whole-body dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scans.
• Measured TMSs with The North American Menopause Society Questionnaire.

Main Results:

• Found significant positive association between %BF and TMSs (r = 0.464, P < 0.001).
• Observed a significant negative association between vigorous activity (VIG) and TMSs (r = -0.245, P = 0.038).
• %BF and VIG were significant predictors of TMSs overall; %BF was a particularly strong predictor for PERI women (R² = 0.421, P < 0.001).

Conclusions:

• Percent body fat explained a substantial portion of the variance in perimenopausal symptoms.
• Vigorous physical activity also contributed to explaining symptom variance, highlighting the role of intense exercise.
• Interventions targeting body composition and promoting high-intensity exercise may alleviate menopausal symptoms in perimenopausal women.