Most forms of memory loss are just attributed to age or some form of dementia but there are other things that happen in our lives that many affect our memory or loss of memory that we have never considered. It’s not always due to senility or Alzheimer’s.

We just posted a piece on how prolonged sitting can affect memory, especially as we age. We mentioned that many people fear losing some or most of their memory as they age. Part of the fear is due to vanity and having to admit that one is getting older and the other reason is more obvious, none of us want to forget things, what did, who someone is, what we were getting ready to do, the name of a restaurant, movie, song or person, etc…

If that’s not enough to worry many of the people, a new study suggests that there is a link between the age a woman experiences menopause and her degree of memory loss over the years:

“Entering menopause at a later age may be associated with a small benefit to your memory years later, according to a study published in the April 11, 2018, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.”

“‘This study suggests that lifelong hormonal processes, not just short-term fluctuations during menopause, may be associated with memory skills,’ said study author Diana Kuh, PhD, FFPH, FMedSci, of the University College London in the United Kingdom.”

“The study involved 1,315 women from the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development in Great Britain who had been followed since birth in March 1946. All of the women had tests of their verbal memory skills and their cognitive processing speed at ages 43, 53, between 60 and 64, and at age 69. The researchers collected information on age at menopause, either natural or due to removal of the ovaries, whether they took hormone replacement therapy, and other factors that could affect thinking and memory skills, such as childhood cognitive ability, amount of education, smoking and type of occupation.”

The study defined menopause as the age a woman experienced her last menstrual cycle. Of the women that went through natural menopause, the average age of menopause was 51.5 years.

They determined memory by giving the women a list of 15 items and then seeing how many they could recall. This was repeated three times for a total score of 45. Women at the age of 43 had an average score of 25.8 and the scores of the same women at age 69 had dropped to 23.3. It’s not a huge difference but they did find that the scores dropped sooner for those who started menopause at an earlier age. It was determined that women who experienced menopause at older ages scored on average 0.17 mote items PER year.

True, these losses are small, but when you couple it with a job where you sit a lot and other health factors, every little bit begins to add up together and could become more significant.