Decreased levels of natural estrogen in postmenopausal women seem to have no effect on a woman’s level of intellectual or cognitive functioning compared to higher levels of the hormone, according to a recent report published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
According to Dr. Kristin Yaffe, one of the key researchers at the University of California, this is one of the first studies to research the connection between endogenous estrogen levels and changes in functions such as learning and memory in postmenopausal women. Earlier studies had found that increased estrogen levels help intellectual functioning in women. Out of the 523 women who participated in the new study, those with higher estrone levels actually saw a drop in 2 out of 3 of their cognitive tests compared to those women with lower endogenous estrone levels. Still, researchers claim that the results were inconclusive and warrant further investigation.
