Hormonal changes during menopause are not linked to mood swings

Menopause, which is caused by an imbalance of the body’s sex hormones, is believed to be the reason why some women throw unreasonable tantrums.

 

New research found that changes in the levels of oestrogen were not linked to bad temper or mood swings.

 

The study was published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is the first to determine how women of different ages are affected by hormones, and saw no correlation between sex hormones and reasoning.

 

Professor Victor Henderson, of Stanford University in California conducted a study with 643 middle-aged and elderly women.

 

In the study, he grouped the participants into those who had undergone menopause less than six years previously and those who were beyond ten years.

 

The women were all aged 41 to 84 and were given a series of tests to examine how they reason, they were then assessed for depression and had their blood sampled for hormones.

 

Prof Henderson did not find any significant link his finding, but he stated:

 

“The findings don't 'necessarily mean oestrogens are irrelevant to cognition since we have no way of measuring oestrogen directly at the brain level.”