Word: estrogen
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Nachtigall is a fervent believer in the healing power of estrogen. "Even for women who are already in deep sexual difficulty, the therapy usually reverses the damage in only a few weeks," she writes. Estrogen creams, applied topically, are very effective at rejuvenating vaginal tissues and are probably safer than pills or patches because they put less hormone into circulation. For those whose sex drive remains stuck in low gear despite hrt, the male hormone testosterone may help, though unless dosages are watched carefully, it can cause deepening voice, growth of facial hair and other unwanted effects...
Long before it works its turbulent magic at puberty, long before we are even born, estrogen leaves its indelible mark on our mental functions. Not only does it help sculpt the brain during the earliest stages of development; it also continues to play a role in learning and memory throughout life. Subtle differences between the male and female brain can be traced to the influences of estrogen and testosterone in the womb. (While all fetuses are exposed to their mother's estrogen, male fetuses produce testosterone in their testes by the 12th week of gestation.) Particularly affected is the hypothalamus...
Later these hormones play a housekeeping role in the growth and maintenance of brain cells in both sexes. (In boys some testosterone is converted to estrogen in the brain.) When estrogen is in short supply, memory and thought processes can suffer. Psychologist Barbara Sherwin at Montreal's McGill University has studied the effects of estrogen therapy on women who have had their ovaries removed and thus produce very little estrogen of their own. She found that women who were given injections of estrogen were better at learning and recalling pairs of words than those given a placebo. The effect...
Even the normal rise and fall of estrogen during a woman's menstrual cycle can affect mental performance. Young women do better on Sherwin's word-pair memory tests during the luteal phase of their cycle, when estrogen and progesterone levels are high, than during menstruation, when hormone levels are low. This doesn't mean women are less competent late in their cycles, says Sherwin; the changes are too minor "to have any real effect in the real world." Still, there is little doubt that the foggy forgetfulness that envelops some women as they approach menopause is a direct result...
...Just how estrogen works in the brain remains obscure, though research by Bruce McEwen at Rockefeller University has shown that the hormone increases the number of connections between nerve cells in the hippocampus, a region that helps govern memory. Estrogen also increases the production of acetylcholine, a brain chemical that is abnormally low in Alzheimer's patients...