Menopause Linked to Certain Health Conditions Including Brain Changes After Menopausal Stage

A new study recently examined the role menopause may have on the amounts of certain biomarkers that may have been associated in some research with an increased risk of conditions like stroke, cognitive decline, and Alzheimer's disease.

Women who have experienced menopause, a EurekAlert! report specified, "may have more of a brain biomarker" also known as white matter hyperintensities compared to premenopausal women or men of the same age.

Essentially, white matter hyperintensities are small lesions that can be seen on brain scans that turn more common with age or uncontrollable high blood pressure.

According to Monique Breteler, MD, PhD, the study author from the German Center of Neurodegenerative Diseases in Bonn, Germany, and an American Academy of Neurology member, white matter hyperintensities "increase as the brain ages, and while having them does not mean" an individual will develop dementia or suffer from stroke, larger amounts may increase the risk of a person.

Menopause and Blood Pressure

Results of the new study published in an online issue of Neurology, the American Academy of Neurology's medical journal, imply that white matter hyperintensities are evolving differently for both men and women, where the condition or factors that determine when it starts, like variation in the aging process, are defining factors.

The study involved more than 3,400 individuals with an average age of 54 years old. Of all the participants, 58 percent were women and of those women, 59 percent were postmenopausal.

Moreover, 35 percent of all participants suffered from high blood pressure and of those, 50 percent had uncontrolled high blood pressure.

All study participants went through MRI brain scans. The study authors looked t the scans and computed the amounts of white matter hyperintensities for each of the participants.

White Matter Intensities

Following adjustment for both age and vascular risk factors like high blood pressure and diabetes, the study investigators discovered that postmenopausal women had more of these biomarkers when compared to men of the same age.

In individuals 45 years old and above, postmenopausal women had an average total white matter hyperintensities volume of 0.94 ml compared to 0.72 ml for males.

The study investigators also discovered that the increase in brain biomarkers revved with age, not to mention, at a faster rate in women compared to men.

Premenopausal women and men of the same age did not have a difference in the average amount of white matter hyperintensities.

Premenopausal and Postmenopausal Women Compared

According to a similar Medical Xpress report, researchers also discovered that postmenopausal women had more white matter hyperintensities compared to premenopausal women of the same age.

No difference was found between postmenopausal and premenopausal female participants using hormone treatment.

Breteler explained that such a finding proposes that hormone treatment following menopause may not have a shielding effect on the brain.

Unrelated to menopausal status, females who have uncontrolled high blood pressure had higher amounts of this brain biomarker compared to males.

Menopause Linked to Brain's Vascular Health

The study findings not only show that more studies are needed to examine how menopause may be related to the brain's vascular health.

They demonstrate too, the need to account for various health trajectories for men and women, as well as menopausal status.

The study emphasizes the essentiality of gender-specific medicine, and more attentive treatment for older women, particularly those who have vascular risk factors.

The study's limitation was that researchers did not know the exact age when menopause is starting, or whether some participants were perimenopausal.

Related information about how menopause is affecting the brain is shown on TED's YouTube video below:

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