A Case for estradiol: younger brains in women with earlier menarche and later menopause.

ABSTRACT: The transition to menopause is marked by a gradual decrease of estradiol. Concurrently, the risk of dementia in women increases around menopause, suggesting that estradiol (or the lack thereof) plays a role in the development of dementia and other age-related neuropathologies. Here, we set out to investigate whether there is a link between brain aging and estradiol-associated events, such as menarche and menopause. For this purpose, we applied a well-validated machine learning approach to analyze both cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a sample of 1,006 postmenopausal women who underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging twice, approximately 2 years apart. We observed less brain aging in women with an earlier menarche, a later menopause, and a longer reproductive span (i.e., th

SUBMITTER: Luders E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12099614 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature