Women’s Reproductive History May Affect Risk Of Alzheimer’s Disease

reports researchers at Kaiser Permanente found that women’s reproductive history may affect their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and presented their findings at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. The researchers found that “women who had had three or more children had a 12 percent lower risk of dementia in later life than those with fewer children,” while “women who didn’t get their first period until age 16 or 17 had a 31 percent higher risk of dementia than those who began menstruating at 13, and that women who stopped menstruating at age 45 or earlier had a 28 percent higher risk of dementia than women who stopped menstruating after age 45.” The article also mentions another study presented at the same conference that found “women who spend more cumulative months pregnant – especially in the first trimester – have a lower risk of developing dementia,” which suggests that changes in the immune system that occur during pregnancy, rather than estrogen, which peaks in the third trimester, may decrease the risk of dementia. https://www.washingtonpost.com/