Weight gain, mood changes, hot flashes and vaginal dryness – these are the symptoms that most women are associated with menopause. Another less talk about the situation that can be caused by menopause is brainA term commonly used by women who pass through menopause to describe a sudden blur with memory and focus.
Brain fog can increase alarm bells for dementia or other serious illnesses – especially because studies have linked menopause to dementia – but only because you have occasional problems with memory or concentration as your hormones are shifted through menopause.
Why menopause is associated with dementia
Sixty -five percent of people who are currently suffering from dementia are women. Although age is the risk factor number one for dementia and women have a longer average life span than men alone does not fully explain the vacuum.
At present, scientists do not fully understand why women develop dementia at a higher rate than men, but a prevailing theory supported by recent studies is that it can be linked to estrogen hormone. Both sexes produce estrogen, but females have significantly higher amounts of estrogen, as it is the main female sex hormone.
Estrogen levels are reduced during menopause, causing a series of reactions within the body. Men, on the other hand, produce testosterone at a more stable rate throughout their lives. A certain amount of testosterone circulated through the body is converted to estrogen in the brain through a process called aromatase.
Since males usually do not have such a dramatic decline in testosterone, as females lose estrogen during menopause, women who have gone through menopause will have lower Oesterogen levels in their minds compared to men of similar age.
This theory is associated with recent research that links early menopause to dementia. A 2022 study Examination of health data from 154,291 after menopause in the United Kingdom found that women who entered menopause around the age of 45, who is considered early menopause, were 30% more likely to be diagnosed with the disease before the age of 65.
Brain fog against dementia – Is there a difference?
Brain fog is an instant lack of clarity in memory or focus, while dementia is a progressive chronic disease. However, even the slightest changes in our cognitive function can cause Alzheimer’s panic, which is the most common form of dementia. Do not horrify if you find your memory become slightly less sharp as you grow older. It is extremely common for women after the age of 40 to experience the brain fog, which can worsen from menopause.
If you have always had an excellent memory and never had a problem of multiple work or linguistic liabilities, it may be jarring to find a room and forget what you went there-but it could just be a normal memory-related memory loss.
In accordance with Alzheimer’s linkSymptoms of normal brain fog include:
- Occasionally you need help to remember how to do things like using new technology
- Sometimes make mistakes when they balance the numbers
- You have problems with the correct word
- Decision -making that will normally not
- Losing things you often use
- Having specific ways to do things and bother when something disrupts your routine
- Feeling exhausted for work, family and normal social obligations
However, if you find yourself experiencing one of the following 10 warning signs, Alzheimer’s link advises consultation with your doctor:
- Finding additional provocative to solve problems or plan, such as paying bills or after simple steps
- Continuous memory loss that disturbs your daily activities
- Confusion with time or place
- You have problems with known tasks such as driving somewhere you go all the time
- Problems with understanding spatial relationships and visual images
- Smalling things and find them in places you normally will never put them on, such as leaving the remote control in your car
- Reduced or poor judgment in managing daily work such as financial or personal hygiene
- Changes in mood and personality, such as overthrowing a hair trigger when something is out of your comfort zone
- Increased withdrawal from social activities and work
Can hormone replacement treatment help?
While further research is needed to investigate the relationship between hormones and dementia, some recent studies increase the chance that hormone replacement therapy can help prevent Alzheimers. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a common cure for menopause symptoms.
THere are two types of HRT: estrogen treatment and estrogen progesterone treatment (EPT), also known as a combined treatment. As the name suggests, estrogen treatment only includes estrogen intake. Estrogen can be administered by the healthcare provider in various forms, such as local creams or gels, oral pills, suppositories or vaginal ring.
Combined treatment combines doses of estrogen and progesterone (also known as Progestin). Progests help reduce the risk of uterine cancer. In women with intact matrices whose periods have stopped, estrogen treatment only has higher rates of uterine cancer. When menstruation ceases and you stop throwing your uterus lining, estrogen can cause over -development of cells in your uterus that have the ability to lead to cancer.
A 2023 study It was published at the border at the aging of neuroscience found that women who received hormones in the middle life to deal with the symptoms of menopause were less likely to develop dementia from their peers who did not receive estrogen. However, this is not the case for women who received estrogen at ages 65 and older.
Although clinical trials have generally not found that estrogens protect against dementia, findings from these studies indicate that estrogen replacement earlier in middle life at the beginning of menopause may be able to prevent or delay Alzheimer’s process.
In addition, while the treatment only for estrogen is usually used only for women who have undergone hysterectomy, the analysis shows that prestinins used in combined treatment can mitigate the preventive effect of estrogen (although researchers note that the data was very variable and further research is required).
If you approach menopause and worry about dementia, discuss choices with your medical provider who will advise you on the best course of action.
