Something unique seems to be happening to the brain in menopause

🗞️ Driving the news: A new study in Nature Communications finds that menopause appears to affect brain structure differently from other major hormonal transitions such as puberty and pregnancy

🔭 The context: Researchers compared brain scans from women before, during and after menopause and found little overall change in cortical gray matter volume during the transition
• This contrasts with puberty and pregnancy, which are associated with reductions and remodeling of cortical gray matter
• The findings suggest sex hormones may influence the brain differently at different stages of life

🌍 Why it matters: Menopause-related brain changes remain poorly understood despite affecting a huge proportion of the population
• The study adds evidence to a historically overlooked area of research, but it does not yet establish whether structural changes during menopause affect cognition or memory

⏭️ What’s next: Researchers say further work is needed to identify specific structural and functional changes and understand their relationship with cognitive health, as well as effects of hormone replacement therapy.

💬 One quote: “This is really fundamental research, and it’s really understanding the basic brain mechanisms of the female brain. It’s long been overlooked,” Amsterdam University Researcher Van ’t Hof said.