(Science Daily) — Compared with women who enter menopause around age 50, women who experience very early menopause (before the age of 40) were found to be 35% more likely to develop some type of dementia later in life, according to a large study of women living in the United Kingdom.
Women who entered menopause before age 45 were also 1.3 times more likely to develop dementia before the age of 65. In addition, women who entered menopause later, at age 52 or older, had dementia risk similar to women who entered menopause at the average age for menopause onset which is the age of 50 to 51 years.
“Our study found that women who enter menopause very early were at greater risk of developing dementia later in life,” said Wenting Hao, M.D., a Ph.D. candidate at Shandong University in Jinan, China. “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.” (…)