Overview

• The analysis of 1,329 women from the Framingham Heart Study connected reproductive history, blood oestrogen levels, cognitive testing and brain MRI findings with later dementia outcomes.
• Greater lifetime exposure to oestrogen was associated with stronger cognitive performance and larger brain volumes.
• Older age at menopause and having more children correlated with more favorable brain measures within the cohort.
• Use of hormone replacement therapy after menopause was linked to a lower risk of dementia in the study data.
• Led by the University of Galway and published in the Journal for Alzheimer’s Disease, the work highlights biologically plausible links but does not establish causation.