Short-term menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) did not have long-term cognitive effects in women in early postmenopause. This is according to a study published on November 21 in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Carey Gleason of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, and colleagues.
Although MHT can provide relief from the difficult symptoms of menopause, many women and doctors hesitate to start MHT due to safety concerns. Previous studies have linked one form of hormone therapy to mild cognitive impairment and dementia in women over 65, leading to investigations into the importance of age and timing of therapy on cognitive impairment. Other studies have shown that transdermal estrogen may have long-term cognitive benefits.
In the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study (KEEPS), women in early postmenopause with good cardiovascular health were randomly assigned to one of two types of MHT (oral or transdermal estrogen) or a placebo. After four years, women who received MHT showed no cognitive benefit or harm compared to the placebo group. However, the long-term cognitive effects of MHT remain under-researched.
In this new follow-up study—the KEEPS Continuation Study—researchers revisited participants nearly ten years later to repeat a battery of cognitive tests. In 275 women, while MTH did not protect against cognitive decline, short-term MHT also had no long-term negative cognitive effects.
These findings may reassure women considering MHT and add to the growing body of research demonstrating the importance of the right timing for MHT. Further research is needed to investigate whether these findings are generalizable to women at higher cardiovascular risk.
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004435
