Hormone Therapy Doesn't Boost Brainpower
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Hormone therapy with either estrogen or testosterone might not affect women's thinking and memory skills in the years soon after menopause, hints a new study. The findings are the latest addition to a complicated picture of the possible link between hormones and mental functioning in women. Some researchers think hormone therapy may help improve brain function and prevent Alzheimer's disease after menopause. But then there are studies that show little impact on thinking and memory, or different impacts depending on the age of women being treated.
One recent study of women in surgical menopause - when the uterus and ovaries are removed - suggested that estrogen might provide a memory benefit, but that testosterone canceled out some of that benefit when women took both hormones (see Reuters Health story of July 2, 2010: Testosterone may not help memory after menopause). "Since many women during the time of menopausal transition complain about cognitive impairment it has been suggested that estrogen may have a beneficial effect on memory and cognitive abilities," while "testosterone is suggested to improve spatial ability but impair verbal memory," Dr. Angelica Linden Hirschberg, one of the current study's authors from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, told Reuters Health by email.
Estrogen declines in women as they enter menopause and in the years shortly after, but testosterone levels don't change very much around menopause. Still, both hormones have been used to treat symptoms in postmenopausal women - estrogen to prevent hot flashes and osteoporosis, and testosterone for women who lose their sex drive around this time. Hormone therapy took a hit in 2002, however, when the Women's Health Initiative study was halted because women taking hormones had higher rates of heart disease, stroke, and breast cancer than women not on hormones. Read more: postchronicle.com
One recent study of women in surgical menopause - when the uterus and ovaries are removed - suggested that estrogen might provide a memory benefit, but that testosterone canceled out some of that benefit when women took both hormones (see Reuters Health story of July 2, 2010: Testosterone may not help memory after menopause). "Since many women during the time of menopausal transition complain about cognitive impairment it has been suggested that estrogen may have a beneficial effect on memory and cognitive abilities," while "testosterone is suggested to improve spatial ability but impair verbal memory," Dr. Angelica Linden Hirschberg, one of the current study's authors from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, told Reuters Health by email.
Estrogen declines in women as they enter menopause and in the years shortly after, but testosterone levels don't change very much around menopause. Still, both hormones have been used to treat symptoms in postmenopausal women - estrogen to prevent hot flashes and osteoporosis, and testosterone for women who lose their sex drive around this time. Hormone therapy took a hit in 2002, however, when the Women's Health Initiative study was halted because women taking hormones had higher rates of heart disease, stroke, and breast cancer than women not on hormones. Read more: postchronicle.com
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