Features - HRT "can shrink women"s brains"

Some forms of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can slightly shrink the brains of post-menopausal women, a US study has suggested.
The findings may help explain previous work linking HRT to an increased risk of memory loss and dementia.
A team led by researchers at Wake Forest University carried out brain scans on 1,400 women aged 71 to 89 who took part in an earlier HRT trial.

Significant numbers of women take hormones, including the female sex hormone oestrogen, to reduce the unpleasant symptoms of the menopause, such as hot flushes, mood changes, and thinning of the bones.
However, research has linked HRT to a raised risk of some forms of cancer.

The latest study found two key areas of the brain involved in thinking and memory were smaller in women who had taken HRT than in those who had been given a "dummy" placebo pill.
Brain volume was 2.37 cubic centimetres lower in the frontal lobe and 0.10 cubic centimetres lower in the hippocampus.

But UK experts said the study, published in Neurology, had flaws.

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Page updated: 21 February 2009