Menopausal women suffer temporary memory loss

Details of the study
The findings of the study published in the May 26 edition of journal Neurology are based on a four-year assessment of 2,362 women aged between 42 and 52. All women had at least one menstrual period in the three months prior to the start of study.

All participants took three tests each: verbal memory, working memory and one to gauge processing speed, at four stages of the menopause transition: premenopausal (unaltered menstrual cycles), early perimenopausal (menstrual irregularity from 0-3 months), late perimenopausal (having no period for 3-11 months) and postmenopausal (no menstrual flow for 12 months and above).

As the women approached menopause, they suffered a significant dip in verbal memory, working memory and processing speed, researchers observed. Their ability to learn and grasp things plunged during early and late perimenopause stages only to replenish at the postmenopausal stage, researchers revealed.

“Sixty per cent of women state that they have memory problems during the menopause transition. But the effect of perimenopause on learning seems to be temporary,” study’s lead author, Dr Gail Greendale from the University of California, stated. “Our study found that the amount of learning improved back to premenopausal levels during the postmenopausal stage.”

Though the exact cause fueling the memory dip is not clearly known, researchers believe the hormonal havoc women undergo while entering menopause is likely to cause memory difficulties.

Role of hormone supplements
Levels of estrogen and progesterone, the key reproductive hormones, are known to fall during perimenopause stage, indicating upcoming menopause. To weaken the effects of unpredictable fluctuations in their levels, participants were prescribed estrogen and progesterone hormones during perimenopause.

While taking estrogen or progesterone hormones during perimenopause helped improve verbal memory and processing speed, taking these hormones in the postmenopausal stage scored negatively. “Postmenopausal women using hormones showed no improvement in either processing speed scores or verbal memory scores, unlike postmenopausal women not taking hormones,” researchers observed.

“Our results suggest that the critical period for oestrogen or progersterone's benefits on the brain may be prior to menopause, but the findings should be interpreted with caution,” Greendale concluded.