In trials pooled from postmenopausal women, hormone replacement therapy was associated with more lean body mass and less fat mass than placebo, while exercise training reduced fat mass without a clear effect on lean mass. A network comparison ranked oral estrogen and progestogen combined with exercise as the most effective option for reducing fat mass.
- Study design
- Meta-analysis
- Journal
- Medicine (Baltimore)
- Evidence
- well supported
What it shows: Reasonably solid on the main comparisons: results pooled from trials of anti-osteoporosis treatments in postmenopausal women, with differences that were real but fairly small. The claim that hormones plus exercise beats everything else comes from ranking treatments indirectly, not from a head-to-head trial, and exercise's effect on lean mass was too uncertain to call.Meta-analysis · Medicine (Baltimore)