But don't advise treatment right now, some researchers say. "Not yet," says Pauline Maki, an investigator with the National Institute on Aging. "There haven't been any [looks] at large numbers of women on cognitive outcomes." Natalie Rasgon, assistant professor of psychiatry at UCLA and director of the menopause-related mood disorders research program, shares Maki's opinion. "It will take us some, probably a few more years to tease it out. But as a researcher I believe there are niches for estrogen. We just haven't hit on them," she says. In a two-year imaging study of women over 55,1 Maki found that those receiving estrogen replacement showed greater blood flow in the brain regions connected with memory while taking standard mental tests than did nontreated women. The estrogen users also scored better on memory tests.
Estrogen does more than increase blood flow. "Estrogen has very large and diverse effects on the central ...
