Researchers showed that women who enter menopause before age 40 had a higher risk of developing dementia than those who enter menopause between the ages of 50 and 51.

According to preliminary research, women who begin menopause before the average menopause-onset age of 50 to 51 years are more likely to develop dementia of any kind later in life.

“Our study found that women who enter menopause very early were at greater risk of developing dementia later in life,” says Wenting Hao. “Being aware of this increased risk can help women practice strategies to prevent dementia and to work with their physicians to closely monitor their cognitive status as they age.”

Dementia is a brain disease that impairs a person’s ability to recall, make decisions, and communicate. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, followed by vascular dementia, which is caused by disturbances in blood flow to brain cells caused by strokes or plaque buildup in arteries providing blood to the brain. Both of these types of dementia become increasingly common as people get older. Dementia can also be caused by diseases that damage specific areas of the brain, and a person can develop dementia as a result of more than one disease process.

The current study looked into the possible link between the age at which menopause begins and the diagnosis of dementia from any cause. Between 2006 and 2010, health information on 153,291 women with an average age of 60 years who were participants in the UK Biobank was analyzed.

The researchers were able to distinguish between Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and dementias caused by other factors. They looked at the age at which the women said they had gone through menopause, compared to the average age of menopause, which is 50-51 years old (51 years is the average age for menopause onset among women in the U.S.). The results were adjusted for things like age at the last exam, race, educational level, cigarette and alcohol use, body mass index, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, income, leisure and physical activities, and so on, so that they were more accurate and fair.

According to the findings of the investigation:

• Women who went through menopause before the age of 40 had a 35% higher chance of being diagnosed with dementia.
• Women who went through menopause before the age of 45 had a 1.3 times higher chance of being diagnosed with dementia before the age of 65. (called presenile or early-onset dementia).
• Women who started menopause at the typical age of menopause onset, which is 50-51 years old, had similar rates of dementia as women who started menopause at the average age of menopause onset, which is 52 years old.

Despite the fact that post-menopausal women have a higher risk of stroke than pre-menopausal women, and that stroke can impair blood flow to the brain and lead to vascular dementia, the researchers found no link between age at menopause and the risk of vascular dementia in this study.

“Dementia can be prevented, and there are a number of ways women who experience early menopause may be able to reduce their risk of dementia. This includes routine exercise, participation in leisure and educational activities, not smoking and not drinking alcohol, maintaining a healthy weight, getting enough vitamin D and, if recommended by their physician, possibly taking calcium supplements,” Hao adds.

Lower estrogen levels, according to the researchers, could be a component in the possible link between early menopause and dementia.

“We know that the lack of estrogen over the long term enhances oxidative stress, which may increase brain aging and lead to cognitive impairment,” Hao adds.

The study includes a number of limitations. Women’s self-reported information about their age at menopause start was used by the researchers. Furthermore, the researchers did not distinguish dementia rates in women who had a naturally occurring early menopause from women who had menopause induced by ovaries removal surgery, which could have influenced the findings. The data used in this study came from predominantly white women in the United Kingdom and may not apply to other populations.

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