Many women entering menopause say their brains do not seem to work as well as they used to.
A new study (in America) suggests that they may be right, but it also appears the lapses are temporary.
Researchers studied more than 2,300 women, aged 42 to 52, over four years.
Some women in the study, which appears in Neurology, were still menstruating regularly. Others had completed menopause and the remainder were in so-called perimenopause - that is, they were still having some periods but their bodies were experiencing changes as they neared menopause.
The researchers, led by Dr. Gail Greendale of the University of California, Los Angeles, gave the women a series of tests to determine cognitive skills. The tests measured memory and how quickly they processed information.
When it came to processing speed, the study found, all the women except those in the late perimenopausal stage improved their scores when they took the test repeatedly. The researchers made similar findings with the tests for verbal memory.
The differences between the women were less a matter of some scoring worse than others, but more of some failing to improve as much as others over time. And women with lower scores as they entered menopause did better after it. - (New York Times)
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