Brake For Menopause #460
February 09, 2018
I don't know about you, but when I learned about the female reproductive cycle, I learned that hey, these are the hormone changes that happen. Then in menopause they stop. And you get hot flashes. But it turns out it is a lot more complicated than that. First, we'll speak with cognitive neuroscientist Lauren Drogos about the memory changes that happen during menopause. Then, where does this menopause thing even come from and why don't men suffer too? We'll take up the topic with biological anthropologist Lynnette Sievert.
Related links:
- Papers from Lauren Drogos:
- Sex differences in age-related changes in the sleep-wake cycle
- Objective cognitive performance is related to subjective memory complaints in midlife women with moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms
- Effects of botanicals and combined hormone therapy on cognition in postmenopausal women
- Objective hot flashes are negatively related to verbal memory performance in midlife women
- Papers from Lynnette Sievert:
- An investigation of life circumstances associated with the experience of hot flashes in Campeche, Mexico
- NAMS supports judicious use of systemic hormone therapy for women aged 65 years and older
- Anthropology and the study of menopause: evolutionary, developmental, and comparative perspectives
- Hot flashes and midlife symptoms in relation to levels of salivary cortisol
- Hot flash report and measurement among Bangladeshi migrants, their London neighbors, and their community of origin
- Anthropology and the study of menopause: evolutionary, developmental, and comparative perspectives
Guests:
- Lauren Drogos
- Lynnette Liedy Sievert
Guest Bios
Lauren Drogos
Lauren Drogos is a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Human Cerebrovascular Physiology at the University of Calgary. Identifying, and increasing awareness of sex differences in cognition and the brain has been the underlying theme of her research. She investigates changes in mental abilities associated with normal fluctuations in sex steroid hormones (e.g., estrogen), and focuses on abnormal changes in cognition associated with aging. Across these two areas of research Drogos is interested in investigating potential mechanisms by which hormonal fluctuations and stress can impact cognition and mood, and how these may change with healthy and abnormal aging. The overarching goal of this research trajectory is to explain and potentially target treatments to women's increased susceptibilities to psychological mood disorders and dementia.
Lynnette Liedy Sievert
Lynnette Sievert is a biological anthropologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has focused on age at menopause and symptom experience at menopause as two aspects of human variation. She is also interested in the evolution of menopause and post-reproductive aging as a human trait. Fieldwork on the topic of menopause has taken her from western Massachusetts to Mexico, Slovenia, Paraguay, Hawaii, Bangladesh, and the UK.
