Other Ophthalmic Surgery Organ Transplantation Orthopaedics Other Osteoarthritis Osteoporosis Otitis Otorhino. Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D., from Yale University, New Haven, Conn., and colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the influence of estrogen on postmenopausal women s brain activation patterns during tasks involving verbal and nonverbal working memory. They speculate that estrogen s effects may be mediated through its actions on neural sites serving phonologically coded materials. The research also indicates that the effects of estrogen are not limited to verbal memory, but also effect visual memory tasks. According to the authors, the average woman spends at least half of her adult life with decreased levels of estrogen.
Decisions concerning hormone replacement therapy represent major concerns for postmenopausal women.
Declining estrogen levels characterize menopause with effects on a range of systems including, in addition to the reproductive system, the cardiovascular and skeletal systems. Results of studies examining the influence of estrogen on the cognitive function of postmenopausal women are far from consistent. However, these data suggest that estrogen affects brain organization in postmenopausal women. In addition, functional imaging may provide a new tool to detect these effects of estrogen. The results are encouraging and suggest that the use of functional imaging together with protocols examining, for example, different dosages, treatment lengths and washout periods, may provide a new means to explore the effects of estrogen on cognitive function in postmenopausal women.