Menopause and Memory Loss

Does the menopause cause memory loss? It may feel like it, as concentration is impaired and so you may forget why you just went into the kitchen or where you put your glasses. However according to a recent study, this is not the case.

According to a study conducted by Dr. Jong-Ling Fuh, an attending physician at Taipei Veterans General Hospital and an associate professor of Yang-Ming University School of Medicine women who are in perimenopause no longer need to worry about cognitive decline.

Fuh and her colleagues studied nearly 700 premenopausal women living on a group of rural islands between Taiwan and China. The Taiwanese government restricted access to these islands until the 1990s, so the study's population was nearly homogeneous, which would help rule out other potentially causative factors of memory loss.

The women were between the ages of 40 and 54. None of them had had a hysterectomy, and none took hormone replacement therapy during the study.
All took five cognitive tests designed to assess their memory and cognitive skills at the start of the study, and then again 18 months later.
During the study period, 23 percent of the women began to have symptoms of menopause.

The researchers then compared the memory of the women who had entered menopause to those who had not, and found very little difference. In four of the five tests, there were no statistically significant differences in the two groups of women.

Menopause does not mean you'll develop memory loss, said Dr. Raina Ernstoff, an attending neurologist at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich. As you're going through perimenopause and experiencing symptoms like hot flashes, you may feel lousy and have trouble sleeping and this might temporarily affect your cognitive skills.

Dr. Steven Goldstein, an obstetrician/gynecologist at New York University Medical Center in New York City said that he didn't think declining estrogen levels causes memory loss.

Both Ernstoff and Goldstein said they weren't aware of many women who believed that menopause might cause significant memory loss. They also both felt that results from this group of women who were so homogeneous might not apply to different groups of women, such as those living in more industrialized society. And they both said that other factors that weren't studied could play a role in memory loss, such as hypertension, which can contribute to vascular dementia.

Ernstoff also pointed out that the education backgrounds can play a large role in memory loss. Fuh acknowledged the researchers did attempt to control the data for educational differences.

Contrary to what the researchers said, I think that many women do believe that menopause can cause temporary memory loss, and this study will probably go a long way to reassuring them.