Results of a comprehensive study in the United Kingdom indicate that women who used hormone replacement therapy for at least one year after menopause experienced a marked reduction in the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease; in some subgroups, this protective effect was even more pronounced.
This research, published in the reputable journal "Alzheimer's & Dementia," was conducted on data from 183,450 postmenopausal women from the UK Biobank. The researchers followed the health status of this population for an average of 13.3 years, during which nearly four thousand cases of dementia were recorded among them.
According to the findings, use of hormone therapy compared with the group that did not receive this treatment was associated with a 10 percent reduction in overall dementia risk and a 16 percent reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. This protective relationship was much stronger among women who experienced surgical menopause, reducing dementia risk by up to 26 percent. The effect of this treatment was also reported to be more pronounced in women who had shorter periods of natural estrogen exposure during their lives and among carriers of the APOE4 gene type (which is associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer’s).
According to ITNA, one of the key points of this study is the importance of the timing of treatment initiation. Women who started hormone use between ages 46 and 56 showed the greatest reduction in dementia risk, a finding consistent with the "critical window" hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, starting treatment during the time close to menopause brings the greatest neural benefit for the brain.
It is worth noting that hormone replacement therapy is primarily prescribed to compensate for the deficit of sex hormones and to reduce bothersome menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, and its potential effect on brain health remains one of the challenging and still-investigated topics in scientific circles.
The researchers, emphasizing the observational nature of this study, reminded that these findings do not in any way prove a direct role of hormone therapy in reducing the risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s and that other factors related to lifestyle, socioeconomic status, and general health may be involved in these results.
Nevertheless, the researchers believe that these data can pave the way for future research in the field of personalized treatment; so that in subsequent studies, factors such as age at treatment initiation, type of menopause (natural or surgical), genetic profile, and duration of natural estrogen exposure are considered as key variables in prescribing treatment.