COVINGTON, La. — When you think about female hormones and health, you don't usually think about memory, learning, and concentration.
And yet another study is showing just how important estrogen is to women's brain functioning, both before and after menopause.
Another new study is showing the important, positive relationship of the female hormone estrogen on women's long-term brain health.
This time in the journal Neurology, doctors suggest that more natural estrogen in your premenopausal years is associated with better health of the brain's small blood vessels. That's important because damage to those vessels leads to dementia, Alzheimer's, and problems thinking.
“It seems to be pretty clear in this study that women that had a longer lifetime hormone exposure, had less small vessel disease of the brain,” said Dr. Stefanie Schultis, an OB-GYN in Covington.
Dr. Schultis says women who have more pregnancies, and more years menstruating, are exposed to a lot more estrogen. But you also get estrogen through birth control pills, and hormone replacement therapy. And she says other studies show the benefit of estrogen replacement after menopause.
“There are MRI studies that they have done, women on hormones, women not on hormones. We both have atrophy of the brain, but a slower rate in women on hormone therapy.”
Dr. Schultis uses hormone replacement for women whose ovaries are no longer making hormones.
Meg: “Do you hear patients talk about brain fog who are not on estrogen replacement?”
Dr. Schultis: “That's one of the biggest complaints.”
Meg: “When you put them on hormones, does that help clear it up in your patients?”
Dr. Schultis: “In a lot of cases, it makes it better. There was a more recent study that just also suggested that there may be less dementia and less Alzheimer's in women on hormone replacement therapy, and I share that with them.”
So, as more studies show the relationship of estrogen on brain health, your past exposure, and future needs should be discussed with your doctor.
Two-thirds of people with Alzheimer's in the U.S. are women, who lose natural estrogen around the age of 50.
Estrogen has long been known to play a protective role in the central nervous system.
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