Dementia is on the rise globally due to an ever increasing aging population. In particular, Alzheimer’s disease is 43% higher amongst woman. It has been proposed that the reduction in ovarian estrogen production after menopause may contribute to this difference. Memory and mood complaints, including lack of clarity of thought and memory or difficulty finding words, are frequent in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. The frequency of objectively measured hot flashes in postmenopausal women has been found to be a predictor of delayed verbal memory, with verbal fluency being significantly correlated with the number of daytime hot flashes.23 healthy postmenopausal women aged 49 to 55 years have participated in a study exploring the effects of continuous-combined estradiol 1 mg/drospirenone 2 mg (E2D) on cognitive performance. The study findings have just been published in Menopause: The Journal of The North American Menopause Society (Vol. 20, No. 10, pp. 1020/1026), by Dr Sonia Davison, Ms Penny Robinson, Dr Fiona Jane and Professor Susan Davis from the Womens Health Research Program, Ms Jennifer Leech and Professor Paul Maruff from the University of Melbourne, and Professor Gary Egan (Monash Biomedical Imaging).
The six month study assessed cognitive performance using a computerized Program called ‘CogState’. Participants were tested at 0, 12 and 26 weeks. MRI was performed on 13 participants before and after treatment using tasks of verbal fluency and mental rotation.
The study found that E2D was not associated with an overall effect on cognitive performance. MRI results showed no difference between the groups for verbal fluency or mental rotation task performance at baseline.
The study therefore concluded that E2D has no detrimental effect on cognitive performance in early postmenopausal women. E2D significantly improves menopausal symptoms, sexual function, systolic blood pressure, and weight.
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