{"id":825885,"date":"2026-08-26T00:44:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/825885\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T00:44:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:44:24","slug":"the-midlife-milestone-linked-to-higher-alzheimers-risk-in-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/825885\/","title":{"rendered":"The midlife milestone linked to higher Alzheimer\u2019s risk in women"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not called the \u201cbig change\u201d for nothing.<\/p>\n

Women are more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease than men, accounting for roughly two-thirds<\/a> of people with the degenerative condition.<\/p>\n

And one factor in particular could point to an increased risk for women of a certain age, according to a groundbreaking new study.<\/p>\n

\"AWomen are more often diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease than men, and one major change could determine their risk. Rido \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Menopause typically occurs in the early 50s<\/a> \u2014 although the transition can begin a decade earlier \u2014 and the timing could be a critical early warning sign for long-term brain health.<\/p>\n

Published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Network Open, the research found a crucial factor linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer\u2019s in women: the age when they experience menopause.<\/p>\n

Looking at more than 2,600 women, the study found that earlier menopause was linked to faster brain aging and an earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s disease in older women \u2014 even decades later.<\/p>\n

Women who experienced earlier menopause showed changes in white matter<\/a>, the brain tissue responsible for learning and memory, according to Dr. Stephanie McNally<\/a>, medical director of the Northwell Katz Institute for Women\u2019s Health.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis actually suggests that\u00a0with an earlier menopause, whether natural or surgical, there\u2019s going to be a higher change in that functionality,\u201d McNally, the vice president of the Northwell Health OBGYN Service Line, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore potentially a shorter time for somebody to be disease free from Alzheimer\u2019s, a higher change in their cognitive function.\u201d<\/p>\n

As women age and enter the menopausal transition, white matter starts to break down, meaning its protective aspects begin to lessen.<\/p>\n

\"WomanStarting menopause at an earlier age than the average of 52 could increase the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Monkey Business \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

However, the research noted that other factors that could influence the association between earlier menopause and cognitive changes in Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going on universally with their other comorbidities, other disease processes,\u201d McNally asked.\u00a0\u201cPregnancy associations, whether or not there was breastfeeding, medications \u2014 all these things have impact and factors on a woman\u2019s cognitive functionality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incidentally, a different study suggested that women who use hormone therapy<\/a>, a common menopause symptom treatment, actually faced a lower risk of developing the memory-robbing illness.<\/p>\n

Women who had taken estrogen-only MHT had a 35% lower risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s during their lifetime than those who had not taken the medication.<\/p>\n

Another important factor to consider is whether menopause was induced via surgery or occured naturally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a woman is put into surgical menopause with removal of their ovaries, this really has an\u00a0immediate abrupt decline and change in hormonal balance that has an impact on cognitive function as well as neuroimaging,\u201d McNally pointed out.<\/p>\n

When ovaries produce less of the hormone estrogen<\/a> \u2014 which supports memory, learning and executive function \u2014 this can lead to brain fog and memory lapses, symptoms that mimic those of early-stage dementia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we still don\u2019t have a specific answer to is at what point does estrogen, or will it, prevent or inhibit the progression into Alzheimer\u2019s disease or changes in cognitive function,\u201d McNally said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not called the \u201cbig change\u201d for nothing. Women are more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[4528,18368,97,252,253,5446,24295,3284,1764],"class_list":["post-825885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-womens-health","tag-alzheimers-disease","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hormones","tag-menopause","tag-study-says","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}