Associations between pituitary-ovarian hormones and cognition in recently menopausal women independent of type of hormone therapy

Juliana M. Kling, Division of Women's Health Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ, USA. Electronic address: kling.juliana@mayo.edu.
N Maritza Dowling, Department of Acute & Chronic Care, School of Nursing, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
Heather Bimonte-Nelson, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA; Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium, Phoenix, AZ 85006, USA.
Carey E. Gleason, Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Madison VA GRECC, Madison, WI, USA.
Kejal Kantarci, Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
Cynthia M. Stonnington, Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ, USA.
S Mitch Harman, Phoenix VA Health Care System, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
Frederick Naftolin, e-Bio Corp., New York, NY, USA.
Lubna Pal, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Marcelle Cedars, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, USA.
JoAnn E. Manson, Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Taryn T. James, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
Eliot A. Brinton, Utah Lipid Center, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Virginia M. Miller, Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic, United States; Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, USA.

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Journal

Maturitas

Volume

167

DOI

10.1016/j.maturitas.2022.10.002

Keywords

Cognition; Menopausal hormone therapy; Menopause; Pituitary ovarian hormones

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine associations of pituitary-ovarian hormone levels with cognition before and after different formulations of hormone therapy (HT) or placebo independent of treatment group. METHODS: Recently menopausal, healthy women were randomized to 0.45 mg/day oral conjugated equine estrogens (o-CEE, n = 109), 50 μg/day transdermal 17β (tE2, n = 107) or placebo pills and patches (n = 146); women on active treatment received oral 200 mg/day micronized progesterone for 12 days per month. Levels of estrone, 17β-estradiol, follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, androstenedione, and testosterone were determined prior to and after 48 months of study participation. Neuropsychological testing was administered at baseline, and months 18, 36 and 48. Latent growth curve models controlling for education level, age, APOE allele status, waist circumference, and treatment examined the trajectories of each cognitive domain after accounting for the effect of hormone levels at baseline and months 18, 36 and 48. A linear multivariate mixed model examined the effect of changes in hormone levels on changes in trajectories of complex attention tasks with varying degrees of difficulty. RESULTS: All women were adherent to treatment at month 48. Higher baseline estrone levels were associated with poorer global cognition, auditory attention and working memory, visual attention, and executive function, but not working memory. Higher levels of baseline 17β-E2 were associated with poorer cognitive performance, with marginal significance at baseline in speeded language and mental flexibility (p = 0.013). Other hormone levels were not associated with cognition. Controlling for all treatments, hormone levels at baseline and at month 48 did not have any significant correlation with cognitive trajectories over time. SUMMARY: In healthy, recently menopausal women, baseline estrone levels were inversely associated with selected cognitive factors independent of two types of HT or placebo during 4 years of follow-up. Baseline levels of the other pituitary-ovarian hormones studied were not associated with baseline cognition, nor were changes in any hormones associated with changes in cognition during the study. The marginal association between estradiol levels and cognitive factors warrants further investigation. GOV NUMBERS: NCT00154180, NCT00623311.

Department

Nursing Faculty Publications

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