Trial reportThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2017
Long-term Effects on Cognitive Trajectories of Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy in Two Age Groups.
Trial report in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01124773 (Women's Health Initiative Memory Study of Younger Women), which is not on this map. Cited by 49 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Women's Health Initiative Memory Study of Younger Women
Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Brazilian Guideline on Menopausal Cardiovascular Health - 2024.Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia · 2024Guideline
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of menopause hormone therapy on cognition.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Pooled it
- Is Hormone Replacement Therapy a Risk Factor or a Therapeutic Option for Alzheimer's Disease?International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Long-term hormone therapy for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Plasma Phosphorylated Tau 217 and Incident Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia in Older Women.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Epigenetic clocks of biological aging and cognitively healthy longevity: the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Article
- Independent, but not synergistic, associations ofJournal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology · 2026Article
- Blood DNA Methylation Predicts Long-Term Risk of Dementia in Prospective Cohorts.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Reproductive history differentially shapes the neural response of middle-aged hAPOEɛ4 female rats to estradiol therapy after a metabolic challenge.Biology of sex differences · 2026Article
- Associations of oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy with incident dementia risk: a population-based cohort study.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Article
- Epigenetic Clocks of Biological Aging and Risk of Incident Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: The Women's Health Initiative Memory Study.Aging cell · 2026Article
- Association of epigenetic age acceleration with MRI biomarkers of aging and Alzheimer's disease neurodegeneration.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Epigenetic clocks and longitudinal plasma biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Plasma p-tau217 and incident mild cognitive impairment and dementia in older women: 25-year prospective study in The Women's Health Initiative Memory Study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Epigenetic clocks of biological aging and risk of incident mild cognitive impairment and dementia: the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Not your mother's hormone therapy: Highly selective estrogen receptor beta agonists as next-generation therapies for menopausal symptom relief.Hormones and behavior · 2025Review
- Associations between hormone therapy use and tau accumulation in brain regions vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease.Science advances · 2025Article
- Associations of Epigenetic Age Estimators With Cognitive Function Trajectories in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study.Neurology · 2024Article
- 20-year depressive symptoms, dementia, and structural neuropathology in older women.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPostmenopausal hormone therapy may have long-term effects on cognitive function depending on women's age.
methodsPostintervention follow-up was conducted with annual cognitive assessments of two randomized controlled clinical trial cohorts, beginning an average of 6-7 years after study medications were terminated: 1,376 women who had enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative when aged 50-54 years and 2,880 who had enrolled when aged 65-79 years. Women had been randomly assigned to 0.625mg/d conjugated equine estrogens (CEE) for those with prior hysterectomy (mean 7.1 years), CEE with 2.5mg/d medroxyprogesterone acetate for those without prior hysterectomy (mean 5.4 years), or matching placebos.
resultsHormone therapy, when prescribed to women aged 50-54 years, had no significant long-term posttreatment effects on cognitive function and on changes in cognitive function. When prescribed to older women, it was associated with long-term mean (SE) relative decrements (standard deviation units) in global cognitive function of 0.081 (0.029), working memory of 0.070 (0.025), and executive function of 0.054 (0.023), all p < .05. These decrements were relatively stable over time. Findings did not vary depending on the hormone therapy regimen, prior use, or years from last menstrual period. Mean intervention effects were small; however, the largest were comparable in magnitude to those seen during the trial's active intervention phase.
conclusionsCEE-based hormone therapy delivered near the time of menopause provides neither cognitive benefit nor detriment. If administered in older women, it results in small decrements in several cognitive domains that remain for many years.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.