Yoga linked to changes in hormones and metabolism in women with PCOS

An early-access systematic review published in BMC on March 4, 2026 and led by Shalini Chauhan and an international team examined how yoga affects Anti‑Müllerian Hormone, androgen levels and metabolic parameters in women diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome. The paper highlights a striking finding from a supervised adolescent trial: "Participants in the yoga group had lower TT, LH, FI, HOMA-IR, and AMH post-intervention."

The review authors underline the limited size of the evidence base, noting plainly, "There have only been two reported studies on yoga intervention in adolescents or women with PCOS to date." That scarcity frames the paper's cautious tone: promising signals in one population, but not yet a broad, replicated result across ages and body types.

Method details from the adolescent randomized controlled trial are specific and unusual for a community yoga program: the trial used "a 12-week supervised intervention [that] included 90 one-hour sessions that included surya namaskara (sun salutation), asanas (postures), pranayama breathing exercises, relaxation, and meditation in the yoga group." By contrast, the control arm performed "walking, standing, sitting, and supine exercises with no yogic concepts or breathing exercises."

The review contrasts adolescent and adult findings: "In the RCT with yoga intervention in adolescent girls with PCOS, FI and HOMA-IR improved, although this was not the case in an RCT with adult women with PCOS." The authors offer a possible explanation grounded in participant characteristics: "The average BMI in the adult group was greater than that in the adolescents, and women with PCOS may have already had established metabolic dysfunction, which could potentially explain this difference."

On hormones beyond insulin resistance, the review reports consistency across the two trials: "In each, an improvement in TT or fT was observed, and DHEA trended lower, although DHEA-S and A4 did not change in a study with adult women." The paper also places its findings in the context of a sparse literature, writing, "As with PRT and ST, few studies have examined the effectiveness of yoga in improving hormones in women with PCOS (Table 5)."

The systematic review situates the PCOS trials within a broader biological literature on yoga and inflammation: a 2022 mini-review in Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health concluded, "The current literature bears strong evidence for the benefits of yoga on the levels of circulating cortisol and classical inflammatory markers, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and cytokines such as interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interferon-gamma (INF-γ)." The Chauhan review cross-references existing syntheses and guidelines, including Teede et al. 2018 international PCOS recommendations and prior systematic reviews such as Verma et al. 2021 and Ramamoorthi et al. 2019, as background for mechanistic plausibility.

Taken together, the BMC review led by Chauhan offers an early, concrete signal: intensive, supervised yoga produced measurable drops in total testosterone, luteinizing hormone, fasting insulin, HOMA-IR and AMH in an adolescent trial, while similar metabolic improvements were not observed in an adult trial that had a higher average BMI. The paper therefore leaves the field with a clear next step grounded in its own reporting: more randomized, well-reported trials that specify participant BMI, age ranges and the precise yoga regimen will be needed to determine whether the adolescent results can be replicated in adults and translated into routine clinical guidance.