Going through menopause brings with it major shifts in biology for women, and experts have long wondered whether this could be part of the reason that Alzheimer’s disease is notably more common in women than in men.
Past studies have suggested that the significant drop in estrogen that menopause brings with it could be involved somewhere: a hormone involved in everything from how brain cells connect to how they produce energy.
To take a closer look, researchers from the US tapped into health data on 2,603 women, cross-referencing menopause age against a number of markers for memory and brain function, as well as cases of Alzheimer’s, for up to 18 years. The results of the study have now been published in JAMA Network Open.
While the findings don’t show a direct cause-and-effect link between earlier menopause and Alzheimer’s disease, there were several associations worth highlighting that are worthy of future investigation.
