The neurobiology of menopause: Implications for brain aging and Alzheimer's risk.

Menopause is a midlife neuroendocrine transition linked to women’s brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease vulnerability, with timing and hormone changes shaping neurobiological risk.

• Why it matters: The field needs a lifespan framework to explain how a systemic hormonal shift could alter brain aging trajectories and AD vulnerability, beyond viewing the brain as passive.
• What they did: This review synthesizes evidence on the ovarian-brain axis across development and midlife, focusing on mechanisms such as hormone signaling, bioenergetics, synaptic plasticity, neurovascular function, inflammation, and AD pathology.
• The result: It argues menopause is a biologically plausible window for risk stratification and prevention, and it reviews how menopausal timing and estrogen therapy relate to neurobiological and AD vulnerability.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.