Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) use was tied to a reduced risk of dementia in postmenopausal women over 13 years of follow-up.Starting HRT between ages 46 and 56 was associated with the strongest dementia risk reduction.Benefits also appeared after surgical menopause, for women who carried an APOE4 gene, or for those with lower lifetime estrogen exposure.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was tied to a lower risk of dementia in a prospective study of nearly 185,000 postmenopausal women in the U.K. Biobank.
Over 13 years of follow-up, HRT use was associated with a lower risk of all-cause dementia (HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.84-0.96), according to Anne-Marie Minihane, PhD, of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and colleagues.
Starting HRT between ages 46 and 56 yielded the greatest benefit, Minihane and co-authors reported in Alzheimer's & Dementia. For all postmenopausal women starting HRT at ages 46 to 50, the HR was 0.87 (95% CI 0.80-0.95, P=0.002); for those starting at ages 51 to 56, the HR was 0.77 (95% CI 0.70-0.86, P<0.001).
Associations emerged for women who had surgical menopause (HR 0.74, 95% CI 0.65-0.84), those who carried an APOE4 gene (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.80-0.95) and women with lower endogenous estrogen exposure (HR 0.84, 95% CI 0.77-0.93).
