Menopausal Vasomotor Symptoms and White Matter Hyperintensities in Midlife Women.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

The menopause transition is increasingly recognized as a time of importance for women's brain health. A growing body of work indicates that the classic menopausal symptom, vasomotor symptom (VMS), may be associated with poorer cardiovascular health. Other work links VMS to poorer cognition. We investigate whether VMS, when rigorously assessed using physiologic measures, are associated with greater white matter hyperintensity volume (WMHV) among midlife women. We consider a range of potential explanatory factors in these associations and explore whether VMS are associated with the spatial distribution of WMHV.

Methods

Women aged 45-67 years and free of hormone therapy underwent 24 hours of physiologic VMS monitoring (sternal skin conductance), actigr

SUBMITTER: Thurston RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9841446 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature