Yoga For PCOS: What Mr Iyengar, Geeta Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Irregular periods, unwanted hair, a waistline that won’t shift, and blood tests that keep mentioning insulin? That is often PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), and it is very common. This guide brings together what Mr BKS Iyengar’s teaching, his daughter Geeta Iyengar, the yoga doctors and the research say about yoga, pranayama (yogic breathing), meditation and mindfulness for PCOS. Last updated: 9 November 2026.

By Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist, Flametree Yoga Darwin.

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Does yoga help PCOS? The short answer

Yes. Yoga for PCOS is well worth trying, and the trials point the same way. In women with PCOS, yoga lowered testosterone, weight and waist size, made periods more regular in some trials, eased excess hair growth and lifted mood. Insulin resistance (when the body stops responding well to insulin) fell in several trials too, but a 2026 review found it improved in only 2 of its studies, so that result is less settled. In one trial of teenage girls, yoga did better than an ordinary exercise programme on hormones, blood sugar and anxiety. Mindfulness courses lowered stress, anxiety and the stress hormone cortisol. A good class gives you poses, a slow breath and a quieter mind together.

One thing to keep in mind as you read: every PCOS trial so far tested yoga in general, mostly in India and Iran, taught by teachers with very different training. No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga for PCOS. Not yet tested is not the same as does not work. Iyengar teachers train for years and are assessed by a panel of senior teachers, and in our view as certified Iyengar teachers, well-taught Iyengar yoga is likely to go further than the average. Why the kind of yoga matters.

The bottom line: five key moves for PCOS

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, two or three times a week, and keep going. The PCOS trials used yoga three times a week to daily, for 6 to 12 weeks.
2. Add breath work (pranayama). A slow, quiet breath calms the mind and brings stress, worry and anger down. Stress hormones push insulin up, and high insulin is part of PCOS.
3. Practise with your cycle. In the Iyengar tradition, you rest more and leave out upside-down poses while your period is on, then work more actively once it ends. Your teacher adjusts the class for you.
4. Cut back on what makes it worse. Rushed, tense days, a tight, gripped belly, and hard exercise on heavy period days. Yoga makes you notice these habits, so they are easier to change.
5. Start now. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price, in Darwin or LIVE online.

Who was Mr BKS Iyengar? Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major teacher who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so poses can be adapted to almost any body. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. His daughter, Geeta S Iyengar, did more than anyone to work out how yoga should change for women through the monthly cycle and every stage of life. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

This guide in short

• Overall evidence: Moderate. Best study: Tan 2025 compared six options across 19 randomised trials with 808 women with PCOS. Yoga ranked first of the five kinds of exercise for lowering insulin resistance, and first for lowering testosterone. Other reviews agree yoga looks promising, but say the trials are few and mostly short.
• The Iyengar approach: how a pose is done matters more than which pose; open and soften the lower belly with props; rest during the period; be patient.
• Geeta S Iyengar: irregular and absent periods are among the menstrual problems yoga can help, and inversions and backbends act on the pituitary gland, which sets the cycle.
• Dr Timothy McCall, an American medical doctor and yoga therapist who studied with Mr BKS Iyengar, author of Yoga as Medicine: PCOS is no. 80 on his list of conditions helped by yoga.
• The research: about 20 studies listed below, for yoga, breathing and mindfulness, including 10 reviews.
• Take it further: our free ebook Cutting Stress With Yoga, the 2027 pelvic floor masterclass, and classes in Darwin and online.

What PCOS is

PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) is a hormone and metabolism condition. Many egg sacs (follicles) start to grow in the ovaries each month, but often none ripens fully, so an egg is not released and periods come late, rarely or not at all. Common signs are irregular periods, extra hair on the face or body, acne, weight gain around the middle, and trouble conceiving. Two things run through it: higher levels of male-type hormones (androgens, such as testosterone) and insulin resistance, when the body needs more insulin (the hormone that moves sugar from the blood into the body) to do the same job.

It is common. The 2023 international PCOS guideline, summarised in the Medical Journal of Australia in 2024, puts it at about 1 in 8 women. Some researchers have proposed a new name, PMOS (polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome), because it affects so much more than the ovaries. We use PCOS here, as most people still do.

PCOS touches several of our other guides. If one of these is the part that matters most to you right now, that guide goes into more detail:

• Yoga for fertility, infertility and IVF, which also covers PCOS and trying to conceive
• Period pain, PMS and menstrual problems
• Weight, stress eating and cortisol belly
• Diabetes and blood sugar, for insulin resistance
• Anxiety and anger and depression and low mood

“It is not which asana-s and pranayama that are done but how they are done that is important.”

What does the Iyengar tradition teach for PCOS?

In short: calm the system, follow the cycle, open the lower belly with props, and be patient. The clearest Iyengar source on PCOS is an article in Yoga Rahasya, the Iyengar yoga journal published quarterly from Pune by the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute. It is collected in the journal’s yoga therapy compilation under Mr BKS Iyengar’s name. What follows is known from long practice and teacher experience, and has not yet been tested by modern research. Not yet tested is not the same as wrong. Its points, in our words:

Yoga for PCOS, the Iyengar way: calm the system, follow the cycle, soften the belly and be patient.

• Modern life is part of the cause. The article points to a tense, busy life balancing work and family, changed eating habits, and hard exercise taken without discretion, including on a treadmill during a period.
• Follow the cycle. Rest and supported poses during the period, no upside-down poses while bleeding, and inversions once the period ends. Women with PCOS often have long gaps and then long, heavy bleeds, so the plan changes with where each woman is: rest and forward bends when bleeding is heavy, and, when periods have been absent for two months, supported backbends and lying poses to open the lower belly.
• Soften the gripped belly. When people are tense they harden and grip the abdomen without knowing it. The article asks for the lower belly to be extended gently, with props, so it can open and feel again.
• Alignment, not just the pose. In backbends, the lift comes from the lower sacrum, the base of the spine. The teacher has to watch the structure of the body and adjust it.
• Some poses are left out. Twists that squeeze the belly, such as Revolved Triangle, and abdominal and arm balancing poses, because people tend to grip the belly in them.
• Patience. The article says first signs can come in 2 to 3 months, and that it can take a year or more for the good changes to show.

How stress feeds the PCOS circle

Practising with the cycle, the Iyengar way

The article lists poses that help, done with support: standing poses such as Warrior II and Half Moon, with a trestle or the wall; inversions such as Headstand on the ropes, outside the period; and lying poses such as Reclining Bound Angle, Reclining Hero and Reclining Big Toe Pose, done regularly. Your teacher chooses what suits you and adapts it with props. Mr Iyengar’s book Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health has no PCOS course, but its nearest courses are for absent periods (p. 390), infertility (p. 394) and weight (p. 302).

“How useful Yoga is can only be understood by practising it.”

What Geeta Iyengar taught about the cycle

In short: a regular cycle depends on the glands that run it, and yoga works on those glands and on the nerves. Geeta S Iyengar (1944 to 2018), Mr Iyengar’s daughter, taught alongside him in Pune for more than 50 years. Her book Yoga: A Gem for Women was one of the first yoga books written for women. We found no PCOS section in it, but her chapter “Three Milestones in a Woman’s Life” covers the problems PCOS brings. Her points, in our words:

• The cycle depends on the glands. A healthy period depends on healthy ovaries, and they depend on the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus at the base of the brain.
• Inversions and backbends are useful for stimulating the pituitary gland, forward bends bring fresh blood to the pelvic organs, and standing poses build the body.
• Irregular, long and absent cycles are among the menstrual problems she lists, and she says one can take to yoga for them without fear of harm.
• Mind as well as body. She names fear, anxiety and strain on the nerves among the causes of menstrual trouble, and says asana and pranayama reduce those tensions and turn the mind from negative to positive.
• Start at any age. Twelve to fourteen is ideal, she says, but it is never too late.

What Dr Timothy McCall and Dr Krishna Raman say

In short: PCOS is on Dr McCall’s list, and Dr Raman’s view of stress and blood sugar fits it. Dr Timothy McCall published a list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga in June 2019. Polycystic ovarian syndrome is no. 80. The trials he listed for it were the Indian trials of 90 teenage girls described below. Our encyclopaedia uses his list as its backbone and builds on it with newer research, which for PCOS has grown a great deal since 2019.

Dr Krishna Raman is a medical doctor in Chennai who trained in yoga under Mr BKS Iyengar. In his question-and-answer book Yoga and Medical Science: FAQ, two of his views bear on PCOS: stress raises blood sugar, and with yoga, insulin levels stay within normal limits. Those are his views from practice, and several of the trials below found insulin resistance fell with yoga.

What does the research say about yoga for PCOS?

In short: yoga lowered testosterone, and in several trials made periods more regular, eased excess hair, trimmed weight and waist size and lifted mood. Insulin resistance fell in several trials, but less consistently. Mindfulness courses lowered stress, anxiety and cortisol. The reviews call the results promising and ask for more and longer trials. Every trial tested yoga in general, not Iyengar yoga. Why the difference matters.

Yoga ranked first for insulin resistance

Iyengar yoga studies

No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga for PCOS. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. The trials below used general yoga programmes, often sun salutations, poses, pranayama and meditation, taught by teachers whose training is not described. Where yoga did better than an exercise programme, as it did for the Indian teenagers, that was yoga in general.

Reviews of many trials

• Yoga ranked first of five kinds of exercise for lowering insulin resistance, and first for lowering testosterone. Tan 2025, a network review of 19 randomised trials and 808 women. A fair note: a ranking shows which option looked best in that comparison. A newer review (Li 2026) found insulin resistance improved in only 2 studies, so treat the insulin result as promising, not settled. Read the study.
• Exercise lowered insulin, insulin resistance and inflammation. Khalafi 2026, a network review of 25 studies and 1,107 women aged 18 to 34 on average. Aerobic and interval training looked best for blood sugar control. Yoga was grouped with tai chi in this review, and that group lowered fasting blood sugar, but tai chi is a different practice, so we do not count that result as yoga. Read the study.
• Yoga made periods more regular and lowered excess hair growth, fasting blood sugar, insulin and insulin resistance. Verma 2021, a review of 11 studies and 515 women, with 2 trials pooled; the authors rated the strength of evidence low and asked for more trials. Read the study.

Yoga for PCOS: several reviews, each pooling hundreds of women, point the same way.

• Yoga, poses and breathing together, improved weight, insulin, excess hair, testosterone and mood; mindfulness mainly helped mood. Gautam 2026 (published June 2026), a review of 9 randomised trials. Four came from one research group, so the review counted them as one study. The trials were too different to add together, and the samples were small, so the authors say more and larger trials are needed. Meditation and mindfulness, which count as evidence here, mainly helped body image, stress, anxiety, depression and quality of life. Read the study.
• Yoga may improve anti-Mullerian hormone (a marker of the egg supply), androgens and insulin. Chauhan 2026, a review of 5 papers and 258 women. Read the study.
• Mindfulness-based programmes, including yoga, lowered weight, waist size, testosterone and excess hair growth, and improved PCOS quality of life. Li 2026 (published August 2026), a review of 10 randomised trials with 356 women in all, covering studies up to January 2025. Body mass index (BMI) fell too. The trials were small, and insulin resistance improved in only 2 of the studies, so the hormone results look weaker than the results for weight and quality of life. General anxiety and depression scores did not clearly change. The review counted yoga and mindfulness meditation together, and both count as evidence here. Read the study.

And first for testosterone

What the research has not shown yet. On weight, the results are mixed: in one network review of 19 trials, moderate aerobic exercise lowered body mass index (BMI) more than yoga, and no exercise type changed sex hormones or periods (Motaharinezhad 2024, read the study). That review tested yoga in general, and other reviews found yoga lowered testosterone. Most trials ran 6 to 12 weeks, and the Iyengar tradition expects change over a year. The individual trials are also small, partly because yoga research is hard to fund: universities and governments pay for it, not drug companies. A 2026 review of 10 trials (Li 2026) found lower weight, BMI and waist size with yoga and mindfulness, but insulin resistance improved in only 2 of its studies. So hormones and insulin look weaker than weight and mood.

Trials of yoga for PCOS

• Yoga did better than an ordinary exercise programme on anti-Mullerian hormone, testosterone, excess hair and how often periods came. Twelve weeks, one hour a day. Nidhi 2012, a randomised trial of 90 girls aged 15 to 18 in Andhra Pradesh, India. Weight and BMI did not differ between the groups. Read the study.
• Yoga did better than the exercise programme on blood sugar, insulin, insulin resistance and cholesterol. Sun salutations, poses, pranayama and meditation. Nidhi 2012, the same trial of 90 girls. Read the study.
• Long-standing anxiety eased more with yoga than with exercise. Nidhi 2012, the same trial of 90 girls. Read the study.

Yoga against an exercise programme

• Free testosterone fell from 5.96 to 4.24 pg/mL, and anxiety and depression improved, without weight loss. Mindful yoga three times a week for 3 months. Patel 2020, a randomised trial of 31 women aged 23 to 42 in Pennsylvania, USA (22 finished). Read the study.
• Excess hair growth, waist size and hip size all fell with yoga. Six weeks of yoga against routine care. Mohseni 2021, a randomised trial of 61 women with PCOS in fertility care in Tehran. Read the study.
• Weight, insulin, anti-Mullerian hormone, cholesterol, the ovaries on ultrasound and fertility quality of life all improved. 90 minutes of structured yoga for 3 months. Patil 2023, a controlled before-and-after study (not randomised) of 26 women in each group, Mumbai. Read the study.
• Hormone balance, oxidative stress markers and depression scores all improved. Twelve weeks. Kumari 2025, a randomised trial in which 61 women finished (32 yoga, 29 no yoga). Read the study.
• Insulin resistance fell, with lower fasting insulin, blood sugar and weight. Twelve weeks of poses, breathing and cleansing practices. Verma 2024, an early pilot of 35 newly diagnosed women, with no comparison group. Read the study.
• Testosterone, anxiety, depression and BMI fell compared with a waiting group. Ten days of yoga with naturopathy (a set of natural therapies), so the yoga’s own part cannot be separated. Shetty 2024, a randomised trial of 120 teenagers. Read the study.

Mindful yoga and testosterone

Yoga in general and Iyengar yoga for PCOS

Breathing practice and pranayama

No trial has yet tested pranayama on its own for PCOS. In the yoga trials, pranayama was one part of a mixed programme, such as the daily practice in the Indian teenage trial, and its own effect was not separated. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. The pranayama we teach (staircase, ocean, alternate nostril, humming and a gentle shining skull breath) is slow, nasal and taught step by step, often lying down with the chest supported, and Geeta Iyengar placed it alongside the poses for the cycle. Why the kind of breathing matters.

Meditation and mindfulness

Mindfulness means paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, without judging. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an 8-week group course of mindfulness meditation and gentle movement.

• An 8-week mindfulness stress programme lowered stress, anxiety, depression and saliva cortisol, and raised quality of life and life satisfaction. Stefanaki 2015, a randomised trial of 38 women with PCOS in Athens, Greece. Read the study.
• Mindfulness programmes improved depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem and body image, and lowered free testosterone and cortisol. Duval 2026, a review of 12 studies in women with PCOS (published October 2026): 5 tested mindfulness (269 women) and 7 tested a talking therapy called cognitive behavioural therapy (374 women). The mood results were clear, but the body results were mixed, so the physical benefit is not settled. Mindfulness counts as evidence here. Read the study.
• Mindfulness stress management was among the programmes that eased anxiety and depression. Tan 2026, a network review of 25 randomised trials and 1,453 women with PCOS. Read the study.
• MBSR clearly reduced worries about PCOS. Eight 90-minute sessions. Salajegheh 2023, a study of 60 women in Kerman, Iran (not randomised). Read the study.
• Meditation and mindfulness, including mindful yoga, showed early signs of better mood and quality of life. Rao 2024, a scoping review of 14 trials and 723 women. Read the study.

How long and how often?

The trials ran from 6 weeks to 3 months, with yoga three times a week to daily, and an 8-week mindfulness course. The Iyengar tradition is more patient: the Yoga Rahasya article says first signs can show in 2 to 3 months, and the full change can take a year or more. So come regularly, follow your cycle, and give it time.

Yoga, pranayama and mindfulness: how they work together

Several of the studies above tested mindfulness courses, not yoga poses. That still counts for our classes. Mindfulness is steady, present attention, and yoga poses and pranayama (yogic breathing) are old routes to that same state. So the mindfulness trials that lowered stress, anxiety and cortisol in women with PCOS also show what a good yoga and pranayama class can build. No trial separates which part does the work.

We suggest coming to both a yoga class and a pranayama class. Mr Iyengar taught that asana (poses), pranayama and meditation are not divided, and in our experience the two together do more than either alone. See every class time. We trace the history and the links in Yoga And Mindfulness: Why The Mindfulness Research Points Back To Yoga And The Breath.

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach yoga for PCOS in Darwin and online.

• Props in every class: chairs, belts, blocks, blankets, bolsters, the wall and the ropes, so the lower belly can open without strain.
• Practice that follows your cycle. Tell your teacher when your period is on, and you are given restful, supported poses instead of inversions.
• Steady, attentive work. Holding a pose gives a busy mind one job to do, which is mindfulness in action.
• Standing poses and supported backbends between periods, to build strength and open the front of the body.
• Rest and breath to finish: every class ends with supported rest, and our pranayama classes go further.
• Women’s options: our fertility yoga classes, and restorative yoga for period days and tired days.

See the timetable and book a class. Body, then breath, then a quieter mind: that is the path a class follows, and it is why we offer poses and breathing together.

Read more on PCOS and women’s health

• Yoga for fertility, infertility, PCOS and IVF
• Period pain, PMS and menstrual problems
• Weight, stress eating and cortisol belly and diabetes and blood sugar
• Yoga in pregnancy and after the birth and menopause
• Periods time with no pain or hassle
• Nearby guides: stress and burnout, anxiety and anger and pelvic floor

Take it further

This guide gives you the facts on what helps. The clearest thread through PCOS is stress and the hormones it pushes around, so the ebook to start with is our stress book, with the stories of people it has helped. Go and do the free classes, see what you think, and then a pass puts it all into action.

• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See the timetable and book.
• Masterclasses: Yoga for pelvic floors, Sunday 31 January 2027, one of our 2027 masterclasses with Chris Lalor, works with the pelvis and lower belly, where so much of the Iyengar approach to PCOS is focused. See the 2027 masterclasses.
• Retreats: a week of daily, adapted yoga in Bali. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

Yoga for PCOS: questions people ask

Does yoga help PCOS?

Yes. In women with PCOS, yoga lowered testosterone and, in several trials, insulin resistance, made periods more regular, eased excess hair and lifted mood. A review of 19 randomised trials and 808 women ranked yoga first of five kinds of exercise for lowering insulin resistance and testosterone (Tan 2025). Every trial so far tested yoga in general; Iyengar yoga has not yet been tested for PCOS. The individual trials are small, and in a 2026 review insulin resistance improved in only 2 studies, so hormones look weaker than weight and mood (Li 2026).

Can yoga cure PCOS?

No. PCOS is a long-term condition, and no practice can promise to remove it. What yoga can do is help with the parts of it that trouble people most: insulin resistance, male-type hormones, irregular periods, excess hair, stress and mood. Trials found improvements in each of these, and the Iyengar tradition adds a practice that follows the cycle.

Which yoga is best for PCOS?

The trials used general yoga programmes of poses, pranayama and meditation, and one with mindful yoga. In the Iyengar tradition, the approach set out in Yoga Rahasya stresses how a pose is done more than which pose: supported standing poses, lying poses such as Reclining Bound Angle, supported backbends to open the lower belly, inversions outside the period, and fewer belly-squeezing twists and arm balances. Your teacher adapts the poses for you.

Does yoga change hormones in PCOS?

In the trials, yes. Yoga lowered testosterone (Tan 2025; Patel 2020, where free testosterone fell from 5.96 to 4.24 pg/mL in 3 months), and in a trial of 90 teenage girls it improved anti-Mullerian hormone and testosterone more than an exercise programme (Nidhi 2012). A mindfulness course lowered the stress hormone cortisol (Stefanaki 2015). One review found no exercise type changed sex hormones (Motaharinezhad 2024), so results vary between reviews.

Can yoga help with weight in PCOS?

The results are mixed. In some yoga trials, waist size and weight fell, but in the Indian teenage trial weight did not change differently from exercise, and one review found moderate aerobic exercise lowered BMI more than yoga (Motaharinezhad 2024). Testosterone fell in one trial without weight loss (Patel 2020). A 2026 review of 10 trials found lower weight, BMI and waist size with yoga and mindfulness, but insulin resistance improved in only 2 of its studies (Li 2026), so weight and mood look stronger than insulin. Our weight guide covers stress eating and cortisol belly.

Does breathing or meditation help PCOS?

Mindfulness does. An 8-week mindfulness programme lowered stress, anxiety, depression and cortisol in women with PCOS (Stefanaki 2015), and a review found mindfulness programmes improved mood, self-esteem and body image and lowered free testosterone and cortisol (Duval 2026). No trial has yet tested pranayama on its own for PCOS, though it was part of the yoga programmes. We teach slow, nasal pranayama step by step.

Should I do inversions with PCOS?

In the Iyengar tradition, not during your period. The Yoga Rahasya article on PCOS says inversions are beneficial outside the period, done with the belly soft and spacious, for example Headstand on the ropes, and that rest and forward bends suit heavy bleeding. Tell your teacher when your period is on, and the class is changed for you.

How long does yoga take to help PCOS?

The trials ran from 6 weeks to 3 months, with yoga three times a week to daily. Excess hair and waist size fell within 6 weeks in one trial (Mohseni 2021), and hormones and insulin improved within 12 weeks (Nidhi 2012). The Iyengar tradition says first signs can come in 2 to 3 months and the full change can take a year, so give it time.

Can I do yoga for PCOS in Darwin or online?

Yes. Flametree Yoga teaches Iyengar yoga in Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online, with fertility yoga classes, restorative classes for period days and pranayama classes for the breath. New students can begin with our new-student offer of 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Book a class

Where this comes from: Yoga Rahasya, “Poly Cystic Ovaries: Cause and Therapy”, in its yoga therapy compilation (labelled BKS Iyengar). Geeta S Iyengar, Yoga: A Gem for Women, chapter 7, “Three Milestones in a Woman’s Life”. BKS Iyengar, Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health (pp. 302, 390, 394). Timothy McCall MD, his June 2019 list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga and its reference list, and Yoga as Medicine (Bantam). Krishna Raman MD, Yoga and Medical Science: FAQ. International evidence-based guideline for PCOS 2023, summarised in the Medical Journal of Australia, 2024. Studies as linked above, each looked up in PubMed in November 2026. Everything is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.