It has to do with puberty and menopause, it has to do with pregnancy and also with termination of pregnancy. Dementia, that set of different pathologies all characterized by a dramatic loss of cognitive ability to think and memory that afflicts over 50 million people worldwide, more often women than men (but the number could triple by the middle of the century, given the rapid aging of the population), has to do with female reproductive life and the hormones that regulate it.
Estrogen exposure and the risk of dementia
An Australian study from the George Institute for Global Health in Sidney published in Plos Medicine in fact, it associated the female risk of undergoing cognitive decline over the course of life with a lower or higher cumulative exposure to estrogen. And, using data from over 273,000 women collected by the UK Biobank, it identified the events in the reproductive history most related to the likelihood of getting sick.
Early menopause could increase the risk of senile dementia
by Valentina Guglielmo
Menstruation, childbirth and menopause
Net of other factors that could have influenced the results – for example age, socioeconomic status, smoking habit, body mass index – the Australian analysis indicated that an early or late onset of menstruation, young age at first childbirth and hysterectomy are linked to a higher risk of getting dementia. Conversely, pregnancy and termination of pregnancy, a long fertile period, a later than average menopause are associated with a lower probability.
“Reproductive events related to a lower exposure to endogenous estrogens (naturally produced by the body, ndr) are associated with a higher risk of dementia and these findings explain the difference in female vulnerability to risk, “she said. Jessica Gongan epidemiologist expert on gender differences at the George Institute for Global Health and first author of the publication.
Pill and hormone replacement therapy
“As for exogenous hormones (taken from the outside, ndr), the contraceptive pill was associated with a lower risk of dementia while there was no link between risk and hormone replacement therapy for older age “.
Hormone therapy replaced, women who follow it are no longer at risk of dementia
by Viola Rita
The other factors: socio-economic level and lifestyle
For years, and also on very large samples of the population, the relationship between dementia and level of education, intellectually and physically active life, cultural vivacity, etc. has been investigated. Also in this study there is a data that refers to those researches: the higher risk of dementia linked to premature menopause was more evident in women with a lower socioeconomic status, which therefore, according to the authors, should be considered a powerful indicator of how much social deprivation represents an important factor for cognitive decline, as indeed, they say, for other aspects of women’s health.
Hormone Replacement Therapy: What If It Prevented Alzheimer’s?
by Irma D’Aria
WHO: “Global priority dementia”
Dementia has been defined by the World Health Organization as a global health priority. The most common form is Alzheimer’s, with about 60% of all cases, and with women running a risk of getting sick that is about double that of men. Given the numbers and the social, economic and human weight of dementia, it is understandable why, in the absence of significant therapeutic discoveries, those who deal with it are focusing on risk reduction strategies. And in this sense, the neuroprotective capacity of estrogen could be a useful field to think about. But, the study authors themselves say, more research is needed “to understand whether differences in dementia risk are associated with life-long exposure to endogenous estrogen, and whether the likelihood of getting sick could be affected by use. of exogenous estrogens “.
Identify the women most at risk
Meanwhile, the researchers added, “our findings may be useful in identifying high-risk women who will take part in future clinical trials designed to evaluate potential preventive measures and treatments.”