- Posted March 6, 2025
Difficult Menopause Could Be Warning Sign For Future Dementia
Hot flashes, night sweats and other symptoms of a difficult menopause could be early warning flags for dementia, a new study suggests.
Women who exhibit more menopause symptoms are more likely to develop early signs of dementia like decreased mental function and mild behavioral impairment, compared with women who have an easier transition, researchers reported in the journal PLOS One.
Results also showed that hormone replacement therapy did help ease the effects of menopause on behavioral impairment.
“It's fascinating that there is a link between the menopausal experience and subsequent changes in cognition and behavior,” senior investigator Dr. Zahinoor Ismail, a neuropsychiatrist at the University of Calgary in Canada, said in a news release. “I find that mind blowing.”
Women are known to have triple a man's risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, researchers said in background notes.
To examine this risk more closely, researchers analyzed data on nearly 900 women who’d gone through menopause.
The women reported the symptoms they suffered during menopause, and took tests measuring their brain function and behavior.
Symptoms of menopause could include irregular periods, hot flashes, chills, vaginal dryness, weight gain, slowed metabolism, night sweats, sleep problems, mood symptoms, inattention or forgetfulness and other unnamed symptoms, researchers said.
Women who reported more menopause symptoms tended to have more cognitive impairment later in life, researchers found.
They also had more behavioral problems associated with dementia, such as apathy, anxiety, irritability, lack of inhibition, loss of social graces or tact or inflexibility.
Researchers also asked women if they’d used hormone replacement therapy, which can ease the symptoms of menopause.
Those who had used hormone therapy had better behavioral impairment scores, but the therapy did not improve their cognitive scores, results show.
Some have speculated that the decline in estrogen levels caused by menopause might affect later brain health, researchers said.
Estradiol, a form of estrogen, is known to contribute to the development of synapses and neurons, “all of which decline in neurodegenerative diseases and dementia,” researchers wrote.
“In menopause, estradiol naturally declines,” the research team wrote. “Thus, the experience of menopausal symptoms may act as an indicator of how well females tolerate estradiol changes.”
However, they added that more research involving a larger group of women is needed to verify these findings, and to better understand the potential effects of menopause on brain health.
More information
Harvard Medical School has more on menopause and memory.
SOURCE: PLOS One, news release, March 5, 2025
