During menopause, surprising changes in the brain seem to stop. Major hormonal shifts during pregnancy and the first menstrual period, called menarche, are linked to changes in the brain. But these changes don’t happen during menopause.
A study of over 1,000 female brains found that gray matter volume decreased at menarche and again during pregnancy. These changes are permanent and separate from age-related decline. However, no changes were seen during menopause, according to a report in Nature Communications.
Sophie van ’t Hof, a cognitive neuroscientist, explains that the brain continues to change throughout life, even in adulthood. Small reductions in gray matter happen across a lifetime, especially during major hormonal shifts like puberty and pregnancy.
During pregnancy, overall brain volume decreases by about 4%. This isn’t loss of function but rather remodeling, preparing the brain for parenthood. Similar changes happen at menarche.
Few studies have looked at brain changes during menopause. Van ’t Hof and her team analyzed MRI scans from adolescents before and after menarche, adults before and after pregnancy, and those before and after menopause. They compared these with scans of people whose hormone levels were stable.
As expected, gray matter decreased in the cortex during pregnancy and menarche. But no changes were seen during menopause. In fact, age-related declines in gray matter stopped during this time.