Expectations and experiences of yoga in women with breast cancer receiving endocrine therapy: a qualitative study.

backgroundOnline, group-based yoga is increasingly explored as a supportive intervention for women with breast cancer, yet such programs are rarely delivered by yoga instructors who are also licensed nurses and have seldom focused on the early phase of endocrine therapy-a period often characterized by a high symptom burden and considerable bodily uncertainty. Little is known about how women in Türkiye experience participation in such programs during this stage of treatment.

methodsA qualitative design informed by Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was employed. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted with 17 women (mean age 47.59 ± 8.01 years) who completed a 6-week online group yoga program during the early phase of adjuvant endocrine therapy. The sample predominantly comprised women receiving aromatase inhibitors (16/17). Data were analyzed using IPA, supported by MAXQDA 2024 software.

resultsAmong women who completed the 6-week yoga program and consented to be interviewed, four experiential themes were identified: (1) reclaiming agency within a medically structured life; (2) creating safety in vulnerability; (3) re-inhabiting the altered body; and (4) negotiating self-care under ongoing uncertainty. Yoga was experienced as fostering bodily trust, emotional regulation, and a renewed sense of agency, while also being accompanied by physical discomfort, uncertainty regarding symptom attribution, and difficulties sustaining meditative practice.

conclusionsFor women who completed the online group yoga program during the early phase of endocrine therapy, yoga was experienced as a meaningful embodied resource that supported a renewed sense of agency, fostered adaptive responses to treatment-related bodily changes, and facilitated the integration of self-care into everyday life. However, experiences were not uniformly positive: participants also described physical discomfort, uncertainty about the source of their symptoms, and difficulty sustaining meditative practice, while engagement remained shaped by gendered caregiving and domestic responsibilities and ongoing treatment-related uncertainty-indicating that digital accessibility alone was not sufficient to sustain self-care. Derived from a purposive sample of program completers who volunteered to be interviewed, these findings primarily reflect the experiences of women receiving aromatase inhibitors and indicate the perceived value and acceptability of digitally delivered group yoga within supportive care rather than its effectiveness; the experiences of women who do not engage with or complete such programs remain unknown.