A review of the impact of hormone therapy on prefrontal structure and function at menopause

Abstract

The menopause transition arises mainly from a decline in ovarian function characterized by a decrease in levels of ovarian estrogens (estradiol) and progesterone in women. Menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) has been used to counteract menopause-associated symptoms in postmenopausal women. With the development of advanced brain imaging methods, understanding MHT-related effects on brain structures and functions could help advance our understanding of the biological consequence of MHT-related effects on behavior, thereby contributing to developing new strategies for optimizing brain health during the menopause transition. This review focuses on the human research related to the impact of MHT on structural and functional organization of the prefrontal cortex in postmenopausal women. Although such MHT-related effects on brain structures and functions have only begun to be understood, it may be useful to examine present findings to identify areas for future research.

摘要

绝经过渡主要是由卵巢功能下降引起, 其特征是女性卵巢雌激素（雌二醇）和孕酮水平下降。绝经激素疗法（MHT）已被用于对抗绝经后女性的绝经相关症状。随着先进的脑成像方法的发展, 了解MHT对大脑结构和功能的相关影响, 有助于加深我们对MHT相关行为影响的生物学后果的理解, 从而有助于开发新的策略来优化绝经过渡期的大脑健康。本文就MHT对绝经后女性前额叶皮质结构和功能组织的影响进行综述。虽然这种与MHT相关的对大脑结构和功能的影响才刚刚开始被理解, 但调查目前的发现以确定未来研究的领域可能是有用的。

Keywords:

• Menopausal hormone therapy
• prefrontal cortex
• hormone
• estrogen
• progesterone
• menopause
• estrogen-only therapy
• estrogen and progestogen therapy

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Ms Xi Chen for her assistance with the literature search. Writing up this review happened during Yansong Li’s newborn baby’s first and second months of life. The arrival of his new family member marks the beginning of a new exciting, sweet and beautiful journey for him and his family, which represents life, hope and the promise of love, although bringing a newborn home is a stressful and life-changing event. Here, Yansong Li would like to take this opportunity to send special thanks for all the joy and smiles that his lovely boy (Hongshen Li) brings to him and his family. Wishing Shenshen a lifetime of love, health and happiness.

Potential conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Society for Social Psychology of Jiangsu Province [Grant Number 20SSXGH006]; IDEXLYON, Université de Lyon (project INDEPTH) within Programme Investissements d’Avenir [ANR-16-IDEX-0005]; LABEX CORTEX, Université de Lyon [ANR-11-LABX-0042], within Program Investissements d’Avenir [ANR-11-IDEX-007] operated by the French National Research Agency; Fondation pour la recherche Médicale [FRM DPA20140629796].