Hormone therapy linked to brain shrinkage

BALTIMORE, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Research shows post-menopause hormone therapy for women is linked to brain shrinkage, U.S. scientists said.

The studies involved participants in the Women's Health Initiative hormone therapy clinical trials who also agreed to participate in a sub-study, the Women's Health Initiative memory study. These studies were stopped earlier than planned when researchers found that the hormone replacement therapy increased health risks and failed to prevent heart disease.

Researchers took brain scans of 1,400 women, ages 71-89, one to four years after the Women's Health Initiative hormone studies ended. They found women who had taken estrogen with or without progestin had smaller brain volumes in two areas than the women who had taken a placebo.

The study, published in the journal Neurology, found brain volume was 2.37 cubic centimeters lower in the frontal lobe in the women taking estrogen and 0.10 cubic centimeters lower in the hippocampus. Both areas in the brain are involved in thinking and memory skills. The loss of volume in the hippocampus is a risk factor for dementia.

"These effects were most apparent in women who may already have had some memory problems before they started taking hormones," study author Susan Resnick of the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore said in a statement.