Estrogen-only menopausal hormone therapy was linked with reduced Alzheimer's pathology in an autopsy study.Estrogen treatment was also tied to lower odds of dementia diagnosis.More than 20 years after the landmark Women's Health Initiative trial, hormone replacement therapy remains controversial.
Women who used estrogen-only menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) had a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to a retrospective longitudinal study.
Estrogen-only MHT users had lower odds of increased Alzheimer's pathology on autopsy compared with non-users (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.48-0.88, P=0.005), reported Jennifer Bruno, PhD, of Stanford University in California, and co-authors.
Estrogen therapy was linked to less amyloid pathology in plasma (β = 0.44, 95% CI 0.16-0.73, P=0.0025) and cerebrospinal fluid (β = 0.07, 95% CI 0.002-0.13, P=0.030), they noted in Neurology.
It was also tied to lower odds of both dementia diagnosis (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.55-0.67, P<0.0001) and memory or functional decline symptoms (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.61-0.74, P<0.0001).
