For the first time, scientists have successfully measured estrogen activity in the human brain, offering new insights into how menopause affects women’s brain health. Dr. Lisa Mosconi and her team at Weill Cornell Medicine used advanced brain imaging to reveal that, contrary to prior beliefs, estrogen receptors (ERs) in the brain increase during perimenopause and postmenopause.
The PET scans revealed that women’s brains have more estrogen receptors as they go through menopause. As estrogen levels drop, the brain compensates by increasing the number of these receptors. This increase is particularly noticeable in postmenopausal women, whose brain scans showed more intense colors, indicating a higher density of estrogen receptors compared to premenopausal women.
“Using this method, we were able for the first time to measure ER activity in the brain, and to identify potential predictors of some of these common symptoms of menopause,” Dr. Mosconi, director of the Women’s Brain Initiative at Weill Cornell Medicine, explained in a press release. The increase in receptors, especially in areas of the brain related to thinking and memory, correlates with poorer memory performance and mood swings in postmenopausal women.
Essentially, the brain is trying to capture as much estrogen as possible during this hormonal transition, which can lead to these cognitive and emotional symptoms. “This study completely changes our understanding of what is happening in the female brain with.