ArticleAnnals of neurology2022
Menopause Status Moderates Sex Differences in Tau Burden: A Framingham PET Study.
Article in Annals of neurology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers, 3 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 90 citations in OpenAlex.
- Elevated temporal tau PET predicts faster cognitive decline in women than men: A meta-analysis.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Pooled it
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of menopause hormone therapy on cognition.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Pooled it
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of menopause hormone therapy on risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Sex differences in the association between tau PET and cognitive performance in a non-Hispanic White cohort with preclinical AD.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Article
- Global and regional amyloid-β in explaining APOE-ε4 and sex associations with medial temporal tau: a neuropathology study.Acta neuropathologica · 2026Article
- Blood proteomics of menopause map to brain aging and dementia risk.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Menopause and neurological disorders: a roadmap for research.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2026Review
- Age at menopause,Research square · 2026Article
- Plasma proteomics link menopause timing to brain aging and dementia risk.Research square · 2026Article
- Plasma proteomics link menopause timing to brain aging and dementia risk.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Women's midlife: the front line of Alzheimer prevention.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Review
- Sex differences in neuromodulatory subcortical systems and their implications for Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Gonadotropins Across the Lifespan: Their role in the Neurodevelopment-Neurodegeneration Continuum.The Yale journal of biology and medicine · 2026Review
- Sex Differences in Alzheimer Disease Imaging Biomarkers in a Diverse, Community-Based Cohort.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- From plate to brain: role of mediators and moderators on the impact of diet on Alzheimer's disease.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Loss of ovarian hormones is detrimental in early disease stages of mouse models of Alzheimer's disease and multi-etiology dementia.Biology of sex differences · 2025Article
- Influence of age and sex on presymptomatic phases of neurodegenerative diseases: Focus on multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.Revue neurologique · 2025Review
- Sex-specific associations of gene expression with Alzheimer's disease neuropathology and ante-mortem cognitive performance.Nature communications · 2025Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveWomen have a higher lifetime risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) than men. Among cognitively normal (CN) older adults, women exhibit elevated tau positron emission tomography (PET) signal compared with men. We explored whether menopause exacerbates sex differences in tau deposition in middle-aged adults.
methods328 CN participants from the Framingham Study (mean age = 57 years (±10 years), 161 women, of whom, 104 were post-menopausal) underwent tau and β-amyloid (Aβ)-PET neuroimaging. We examined global Aβ-PET, and tau-PET signal in 5 regions identified a priori as demonstrating significant sex differences in older adults (in temporal, inferior parietal, middle frontal, and lateral occipital regions). We examined sex and menopause status-related differences in each region-of-interest, using linear regressions, as well as interactions with Aβ and APOEε4 genotype.
resultsWomen exhibited higher tau-PET signal (p < 0.002), and global Aβ-PET (p = 0.010), than men in inferior parietal, rostral middle frontal, and lateral occipital regions. Compared with age-matched men, post-menopausal women showed significantly higher tau-PET signal in parieto-occipital regions (p < 0.0001). By contrast, no differences in tau-PET signal existed between pre-menopausal women and men. Aβ-PET was not associated with menopausal status or age. Neither Aβ-PET nor APOEε4 status moderated sex or menopause associations with tau-PET.
interpretationClear divergence in tauopathy between the sexes are apparent approximately 20 years earlier than previously reported. Menopause status moderated sex differences in Aβ and tau-PET burden, with tau first appearing post-menopause. Sex and menopause differences consistently appeared in middle frontal and parieto-occipital regions but were not moderated by Aβ burden or APOEε4, suggesting that menopause-related tau vulnerability may be independent of AD-related pathways. ANN NEUROL 2022;92:11-22.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.