Researchers took a look at the relationship between lifetime hormone exposure, or the variety of times a person has been pregnant and their reproductive lifespan, and white matter hyperintensities, a common biomarker of vascular brain health that establishes with age.
Research Study Methodology and Findings
The study involved 9,000 postmenopausal female participants with an average age of 64 living in the United Kingdom. They did not have cerebral small vessel disease at the start of the study.
Participants responded to questions on reproductive health info, consisting of age in the beginning menstruation and the start of menopause, variety of pregnancies, contraceptive pill use, and hormone therapy.
Individuals likewise had brain scans to try to find cerebral small vessel illness by approximating white matter hyperintensities, which indicates injury to the brains white matter.
Researchers calculated lifetime hormone direct exposure by accumulating the variety of years individuals were pregnant with the duration of their reproductive lifespan, which is the number of years from first menstruation to menopause. The average lifetime hormone exposure was 40 years.
Effect of Hormone Exposure on Brain Health
After changing for factors like age, high blood pressure, and smoking, researchers discovered that individuals with higher life time hormonal agent exposure had lower white matter hyperintensity volumes. The typical total white matter hyperintensity volume was 0.0019 milliliters (ml). They discovered that people with greater lifetime hormone direct exposure had a smaller sized volume of white matter hyperintensities, with a distinction of 0.007 ml compared to individuals with lower life time hormone direct exposure.
Scientists also calculated the life time hormone direct exposure by building up the variety of years individuals took oral contraceptives and hormonal agent replacement treatment. These factors did not modify the effect the number of pregnancies and the number of reproductive years had on white matter hyperintensities.
The variety of pregnancies participants had and their variety of reproductive years both affected white matter hyperintensity volumes separately
” Our research study highlights the crucial role of reproductive history in shaping the female brain across the lifetime,” stated Whittingstall. “These results stress the requirement to integrate reproductive history into handling brain health in postmenopausal women. Future research should investigate methods to establish better hormone therapies.”
A restriction of the study was that details on reproductive factors was collected generally based upon participants capability to remember occasions, and participants may not have kept in mind such occasions properly.
The research study does not show that lower estrogen direct exposure triggers cerebral small vessel disease; it only reveals an association.
Reference: “Association of Cumulative Lifetime Exposure to Female Hormones With Cerebral Small Vessel Disease in Postmenopausal Women in the UK Biobank” by Samantha Cote, Thomas-Louis Perron, Jean-Patrice Baillargeon, Christian Bocti, Jean-Francois Lepage and Kevin Whittingstall, 13 November 2023, Neurology.DOI: 10.1212/ WNL.0000000000207845.
The research study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Quebec Research Fund.
After adjusting for elements like age, high blood pressure, and smoking, scientists found that individuals with greater life time hormone direct exposure had lower white matter hyperintensity volumes. The typical total white matter hyperintensity volume was 0.0019 milliliters (ml). They discovered that individuals with higher lifetime hormone direct exposure had a smaller sized volume of white matter hyperintensities, with a difference of 0.007 ml compared to people with lower life time hormone exposure.
” Our research study highlights the important function of reproductive history in shaping the female brain across the lifetime,” said Whittingstall. “These results highlight the requirement to integrate reproductive history into handling brain health in postmenopausal women.
Current research study shows that higher lifetime estrogen exposure, marked by longer pregnancy and reproductive durations, might lower the threat of cerebral small vessel illness in postmenopausal women, pointing to the significance of reproductive history in brain health management.
New research, recently released in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, suggests that individuals with higher long-lasting estrogen exposure might be at a decreased threat for cerebral small vessel disease.
This condition, a type of cerebrovascular illness, happens due to the damage of tiny blood vessels in the brain and is understood to increase the possibility of cognitive decrease and dementia.
Estrogens Role in Postmenopausal Brain Health
” Previous research has actually revealed that rates of cerebrovascular disease boost after menopause, which is typically credited to the lack of hormonal agents,” stated study author Kevin Whittingstall, PhD, of the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada. “It stays unidentified whether the amount of exposure to hormones before menopause extends that window of security to after menopause.”
