New research suggests an association between menopause and anxiety, depression, and shrinkage in certain brain regions. A study published January 27 in Psychological Medicine analyzed nearly 125,000 participants to examine how menopause and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) affect the brain and mental health.
When a person stops menstruating, typically around age 45 to 55, they might endure hot flashes, mood swings, and sleep issues. Someone going through menopause can also experience cognitive decline, finding it hard to concentrate or remember things. HRT supplies additional estrogen, the sex hormone the body makes less of after menopause, to treat such symptoms.
Participants’ self-reported questionnaires revealed more depression and anxiety, as well as poorer sleep, in post-menopausal individuals compared with those who were pre-menopausal. Post-menopausal individuals also showed decreased volumes of gray matter—tissue comprising nerve cell bodies that helps with mental functions—in certain brain regions important for emotion and memory.
Surprisingly, post-menopausal participants who had taken HRT showed worse sleep and mental health symptoms and more brain region shrinkage than those who hadn’t used the treatment. However, HRT did show one cognitive benefit: HRT-takers had quicker reaction times than those of post-menopausal participants who didn’t use the treatment—and were on par with those of individuals still menstruating.
The brain regions implicated in the study may also provide key insights into Alzheimer’s disease, which women are twice as likely to develop as men. Results suggest menopause is associated with less gray matter volume in areas including the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus, important for learning and memory—two of the first areas affected by Alzheimer’s disease.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-do-menopause-and-a-treatment-to-manage-its-symptoms-affect-the-brain-and-mental-health-180988085/