Madison, Wisconsin - Ten years ago, the landmark Womens Health Initiative (WHI) revealed that women older than 65 increased their risk for memory loss if they took estrogen to relieve the symptoms of menopause.

But new research by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) suggests that estrogen given in smaller doses to younger women just entering menopause does not worsen memory and improves mood and symptoms of depression.

The School of Medicine and Public Health was a participant in the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study (KEEPS), which was conducted and supported by the Kronos Longevity Research Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. KEEPS-Cog (Cognitive and Affective Study) is an ancillary study measuring cognitive and emotional outcomes, funded by the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr. Sanjay Asthana, the lead researcher of the cognitive and affective (emotional) part of the study and professor of medicine (geriatrics) at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, presented the findings today during the North American Menopause Society annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. The preliminary findings, which are not yet peer-reviewed, will be submitted for publication in a medical journal.

The KEEPS-Cog was a four-year study and involved 662 women (average age 52.7 years) of the 727 women in theKronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study cohort.

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Smaller estrogen doses improve mood without memory loss