Presented September 18-20, 2024 at the annual meeting of the American Menopause Society
Cognitive issues occur in 50-70% of menopausal women. Estrogens are known to have neuroprotective properties in several neurodegenerative disease models. However, the type and dose of estrogen to prevent menopause related cognitive decline remains unknown. Estradiol treatment in standard hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has some potential to counter deleterious effects of loss of estrogen during aging in women, but it is only FDA approved to treat hot flashes. Treatment is limited to relatively short durations at the lowest possible dose to minimize estradiol binding to estrogen receptor alpha in breast and risk for breast cancer. Thus, we pursued use of estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) ligands for neuroprotection during menopause given published neuroprotective effects in multiple sclerosis (MS) women and its mouse model.