Late menopause could protect the brain against dementia

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In a recent study, researchers explain that estrogen may play a protective role in women’s brains. Thus, there may be a link between menopause and decline in mental abilities.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost 55 million people are affected by dementia across the world and 10 million new cases are recorded each year. The majority of these patients are women, who are unfortunately at greater risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. For a long time, researchers believed that this inequality was due to the role of certain hormones specific to women. However, a recent study published in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry indicates the opposite. Indeed, according to scientists, women who are exposed to estrogen longer during their lives, from the first period until menopausehave less risk of dementia.

Estrogens protect women’s brains

In this study, scientists from University College London (UCL) analyzed data from more than 270,000 participants, using resources from the British Biobank. The researchers then realized that women who had been exposed to estrogens longer (between 38 and 42 years of exposure) had a 28% lower risk of developing a form of dementia. Thus, the longer a woman produced this hormone, the lower the risk. The risk then dropped by 24% for women who reached menopause around age 50 or 52. Conversely, women whose first period appeared late, around age 15, had a 12% higher risk of developing a form of dementia. In light of these figures, the researchers therefore explain that Female hormones may indeed have a role in preventing dementia in women.

Women with a history of reproductive surgery have a higher risk of dementia

But that’s not all ! Patients who had a history of reproductive surgery had an 8% increased risk. However, this risk may be reduced if the surgery was performed later in life. For example, if a woman underwent reproductive surgery when she turned 40, she has less risk of developing a form of dementia than a patient who had the same operation at 20 or 30 years old. “When women undergo surgery for benign conditions, they experience a sharp decrease in their estrogen exposure and accelerated changes in the nervous system during the perimenopausal period. report our colleagues from Science Alert.

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