Estrogen hormone therapy, a treatment given to alleviate some symptoms of menopause, may shrink the brain of women over the age of 65. The treatment was also associated with an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, blood clots and breast cancer in post-menopausal women, according to a new study.

 

Susan Resnick, a clinical researcher at the National Institute of Aging in Baltimore, lead-author of the study, suggested the decrease could explain the connection found by previous studies between hormone replacement therapy and dementia.

 

For the study, researchers from Wake Forest University analyzed the brain scans of 1,400 women aged 71 to 89 who had taken part in an earlier HRT trial. Those who took the estrogen pill had a significantly lower mean frontal lobe volume, by an average of 2.37 2.37 cm3 compared to those that took placebo pills. Mean hippocampal volume was also slightly reduced in association with hormone therapy, by an average of 0.10 cm3, compared with placebo (P=0.05).

 

The researchers noticed that older women who followed the hormone therapy had greater brain atrophy in those brain regions that are critical for the maintenance of memories.

 

Another recent study released by the Women’s Health Initiative, which tested estrogen and progesterone pills that were prescribed to prevent heart disease, bone loss and other problems after menopause, has found that taking hormones for five years doubles the risk of breast cancer. The findings suggest that women who take estrogen plus progestin continue to be at increased risk of breast cancer, even years after stopping therapy. Researchers say that hormone treatment should not be used to prevent disease in healthy, postmenopausal women.