Estrogen effects on the woman’s cognition in menopause

Abstract

Introduction. Estrogen is a hormone that is being studied for its possible relation with cognition, specifically, with cognitive decline in women during menopause. Objective. To elucidate advances in the effectiveness of the use of estrogen hormones to improve cognition in women in the perimenopause period. Method. This study was made through the collection of research found in platforms such as PubMed and Scielo with the intention of covering a diverse range of opinions about the given subject. Results. Over time, were identified both cases in which the deficit in estrogen concentration caused cognitive changes, as well as cases in which this data was not observed. Initially, the studies did not demonstrate a positive bias towards the use of estrogen in hormone therapy, however, shortly after, the hypotheses of the treatment needing to be started in a limited time period after menopause in order to obtain positive results were raised. Ever since, this is one of the major questions for the development of a safe and effective therapy. Nonetheless, there are still divergence about the effectiveness of the HT, and until now there is no academic consensus about what the beginning and ending if this therapeutic window should be. Conclusion. Therefore, becomes evident the necessity of more research on the topic to clarify the effectiveness of the hormone therapy and the effects of estrogen on the cognitive deficits in postmenopausal women.