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Women make up about two-thirds of those with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and they are more prone to develop this condition than males. Researchers at Mass General Brigham have recently completed a study to gain an understanding of the connection between the risk of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of menopause, and the use of hormone therapy (HT). Alzheimer’s is a brain condition that impairs thinking, behavior, and memory.
Menopause
The most effective treatment for severe menopause symptoms, according to the author Rachel Buckley, Ph.D., of the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is hormone therapy (HT). However, over the past few decades, it has been unclear how HT affects the brain.
The greatest concentrations of tau, a protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, were only discovered in hormone treatment users who reported a lengthy lag between the beginning of their menopause and the initiation of their hormone therapy.
Alzheimer’s Disease
An increased risk of AD dementia has been linked to premature menopause, which is defined as menopause that happens naturally before the age of 40 or as a result of surgical interference before the age of 45. Several severe menopausal symptoms are alleviated by HT, which may help protect against cognitive decline.
Yet twenty years ago, the groundbreaking Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) research discovered that HT usage was linked to a roughly two-fold greater prevalence of dementia among women 65 and older when compared to a placebo, probably because HT use began several years after the beginning of menopause.
Timing is crucial when it comes to hormone treatment, according to co-author JoAnn Manson, MD. He explained that this study implies that the same is true for tau deposition and that previous data from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) showed that commencing HT early in menopause rather than late helps to provide better outcomes for heart disease, cognitive function, and all-cause mortality.
Compared to males their age, women showed higher amounts of tau, particularly when -amyloid levels were also raised. However, even after controlling for recognized causes of premature menopause, such as smoking and oophorectomy, and even genetic risk factors for AD dementia, the researchers discovered that the relationship between aberrant levels of -amyloid and tau was considerably greater in women who had earlier menopause onset.
By examining biological markers in blood plasma and on the X-chromosome, including sex hormones, the researchers are continuing to examine sex-specific potential risks for AD dementia. According to the study’s findings, earlier age at menopause may be a risk factor for AD dementia. The study’s first author, Gillian Coughlan, Ph.D., of the MGH Department of Neurology, claimed that around 10% of women suffer early or premature menopause.
The head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, Dr. Sara Imarisio, stated that to better understand this complex area of study and make sense of the contradictory results that have surfaced recently, larger studies and controlled clinical trials are required.
She added that previous research has highlighted the potential cognitive benefits of hormone therapy while other studies have pointed to an increased risk of memory and thinking issues. This research found some important new information in the field, although the precise time at which hormone therapy and Alzheimer’s or dementia are definitively linked is still unclear.
