Hormone Therapy and It's Implications of Treating Adverse Menopausal Symptoms

    There has been a lot of discourse within the media about the use of hormone therapy and whether or not it should be used. Some studies have shown that the use of HT (Hormone Therapy) can help women who have a higher risk of dementia and those who have debilitating menopausal symptoms. Pauline Maki's work involving the treatment of HT on perimenopausal individuals showed that long-term, there were implications of enhanced verbal memory and enhanced hippocampal function. A study had shown that individuals had alleviations in their menopausal symptoms as well ( H, Shao, et al. 2015). Not only that but a "critical window" hypothesis was born for HT's role in treating people with memory deficits, supported by Dr. Maki's work as well. 

   A Finnish study with over 13,000 individuals was conducted on whether or not the use of HT and certain individual lifestyles had an effect on cognition and memory specifically, mentioned in the source by H, Shao, et al (2015). Researchers had found that women who used some type of hormone therapy cut their risk for Alzheimer's almost completely in half. Dr. Maki heavily emphasizes the role of HT and its enhancement to the medial temporal lobe and hippocampus. These areas in the brain are quite responsible for some working and verbal memory tasks.

    Dr. Maki's study also has implications for treating "negative" symptoms of menopause with HT by giving evidence of suppressed VMS (vaso-motor symptoms) in 42% of the women that were studied. Their research also linked VMS to a decreased verbal memory pattern in perimenopausal women, showing that HT does have its benefits. Both articles claim that each study mentioned has its limitations however depending on the individual, the limitations include who is being treated, and when. Shao, et al. (2015) would agree with Dr. Maki's study considering their suggestion of treating women as early on as possible to reduce the side effects of the HT treatment (i.e. "Critical Window"). Shao's article discusses more in-depth the studies conducted, theirs were based longitudinally with large sample sizes to ensure their validity. 

    No adverse side effects of HT were readily reported unless treatment was initiated at later stages of menopause; more studies should be tested on younger women however (Shao, et al. 2015). Recently published in 2023, The University of East Anglia gives meaningful claims of hormone replacement therapy helping APOE4-positive women at risk for dementia "A study published today shows that HRT use is associated with better memory, cognition, and larger brain volumes in later life among women carrying the APOE4 gene - the strongest risk factor gene for Alzheimer's disease". 

    The benefits of hormone therapy seem to outweigh the negatives, but more research must be done to ensure a true link to improved memory and decreased VMSs. It would be beneficial to see what hormone therapy can do for further research regarding Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

H, Shao, et al. “Estrogen Therapy Could Hold Back Alzheimer's, Shrink the Brain?” ALZFORUM, 2015, https://www.alzforum.org/news/research-news/estrogen-therapy-could-hold-back-alzheimers-shrink-brain. 

Pauline M. Maki, Lorraine Dennerstein, Margaret Clark, Janet Guthrie, Pamela LaMontagne, Deanne      Fornelli, Deborah Little, Victor W. Henderson, Susan M. Resnick, Perimenopausal use of hormone therapy is associated with enhanced memory and hippocampal function later in life, Brain Research,Volume 1379, 2011, Pages 232-243, ISSN 0006-8993, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2010.11.030, (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006899310025436) 

“HRT Could Ward off Alzheimers among at Risk Women.” Go to University of East Anglia, Communications, Jan. 2023, https://www.uea.ac.uk/news/-/article/hrt-could-ward-off-alzheimers-among-at-risk-women#:~:text=Hormone%20Replacement%20Therapy%20(HRT)%20could,University%20of%20East%20Anglia%20research.