Lisa Mosconi

Menopause isn’t just a reproductive phenomenon; it impacts a woman’s thoughts, feelings, self-image, and behavior

Not to put too fine a point on it, but even during this phase, women outperform men on those very same cognitive tests measuring memory, fluency, and some forms of attention

attention. That’s true both before and after menopause

instance, the WHI did include a small percentage of women who were in their fifties, or more generally within ten years of the onset of menopause, when the studies began. For those women, HRT was associated with a reduced risk of heart attacks and deaths from heart disease and an overall lower mortality rate than those who did not take hormones. There is also emerging evidence that HRT may protect against cognitive decline, at least for some women, an issue we’ll discuss in greater detail later. Thankfully, a growing number of positive observations such as these have led to a change of heart about how to use HRT for clinical practice.