Menopause does not come with physical changes alone. It is a period when sleep gets shallower and emotional swings grow larger—what women say they struggle with most is an unseen "trembling of the mind." A large-scale analysis has found how mindfulness training can help with the psychological difficulties of this stage.
Bringing together 10 studies
A research team at King’s College London published, in July 2026, a study analyzing the impact of mindfulness-based interventions on the psychological state of menopausal women in the international academic journal Frontiers in Global Women’s Health.
The study did not focus on a single experiment; it synthesized existing research. The team carried out a systematic literature review and meta-analysis according to the PRISMA guidelines and selected 10 studies in total: eight randomized controlled trials and two quasi-experimental studies. The participants included 1,270 women who experienced natural menopause. The first author is Flavia Bonfadini, and the corresponding author is Mark Kennedy. The main outcome measures included quality of life related to menopause, assessing anxiety, depression, and cognitive function. In particular, when the measurement instruments aligned, the researchers conducted an exploratory (random-effects) meta-analysis to integrate estimates of the mindfulness intervention’s effect.
The most pronounced shift was in quality of life
In the analysis, the biggest change was seen in psychosocial quality of life related to menopause. The Hedges g value—an indicator of effect size—was -1.06, representing a large improvement, and statistical significance was p〈0.001. As a result, when participants received mindfulness interventions, they showed a large improvement effect in quality of life. In particular, it suggested that emotions and social distress related to menopause eased overall.
Psychosocial quality of life is a measure that captures areas menopausal women actually experience in everyday life, such as emotional steadiness and satisfaction with performing relationships and roles. The findings suggest that the way people live with symptoms changes, not just the symptoms themselves.
Effects were smaller for anxiety and depression
In the same analysis, the magnitude of improvement in anxiety and depression scores was relatively smaller. That means mindfulness does not work with the same effect size across all psychological symptoms during menopause.
Based on that difference, the research team said it is necessary to understand mindfulness not as a substitute for existing treatments, but as a complementary approach that supports quality of life.
Tasks the research team left behind
The research team also laid out areas to verify in follow-up studies: assessing cognitive function independently with a recognized tool, examining how long the benefits last depending on the intensity of mindfulness practice, and introducing a design that directly compares mindfulness with existing treatment methods.
The fact that there were only 10 included studies is also something that should be considered when interpreting the results.
Questions for managing menopause in South Korea
In South Korea, women’s mental health during menopause has been treated as one pillar of managing perimenopausal symptoms, but approaches have focused on hormone therapy and adjustments to lifestyle. This analysis shows with numbers what role training that addresses the mind could play in quality of life during this period.
That means there is one more piece of evidence that domestic organizations and hospital health promotion centers running meditation programs can draw on when designing separate courses for menopausal women.
Written based on research results published in Frontiers in Global Women’s Health in July 2026.