: Exercise therapy is first-line treatment of intermittent claudication due to peripheral artery disease. We sought to synthesize the literature on gender differences in response to exercise therapy for the treatment of intermittent claudication due to peripheral artery disease.

: A scoping review was performed (1997-2023) using Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science. Articles were included if they were a scientific report of any measures of health-related quality of life or walking performance following an intervention that included a structured walking program.

: Of the 13 studies, 11 included measures of walking distance; 7 included measures of walking time, 5 included measures of walking speed, and 4 included QoL measures. Overall, exercise therapy resulted in significant improvements across most measures of walking performance for both men and women. When comparing magnitudes of outcome improvement by gender, results of walking-based measures were contradictory, with some studies noting no difference while others found superior outcomes for men. Results of QOL based measures were also contradictory, with some showing no difference while others showed significantly more improvement for women.

: Both men and women experienced significant improvement in walking performance and QOL with exercise therapy. Evidence regarding the differential effect of exercise therapy on outcomes by gender for intermittent claudication is limited and contradictory. Further efforts should be directed at using standardized interventions and metrics for measuring the outcomes that match the indications for intervention in these patients to better understand the expected benefits and any variance according to gender.