Removing Ovaries Before Menopause Leads to Memory, Movemen...(is surgery known as oophorectomy. Wom...),Health

Women who were younger when they underwent oophorectomy were more likely to develop dementia than women who were older at the time of the surgery. The removal of ovaries is often done to protect women at high risk of breast or ovarian cancer.

According to the study authors, women and doctors should think twice before going ahead with such a surgery.

There has also been some evidence that estrogen helps protect against movement disorders, although some studies have shown that the hormone might be detrimental.

To assess this risk, the same set of Mayo Clinic researchers looked at many of the same women involved in the dementia study. This group included more than 2,000 women who had had one or both ovaries removed, and a similar control group of women.

Women who had undergone a unilateral or bilateral oophorectomy (one or both ovaries, respectively) before the onset of menopause were again almost twice as likely to develop Parkinsonism, a syndrome involving movement and muscle problems, the most common form of which is Parkinson's disease.

Again, the younger the woman was when she had her ovary or ovaries removed, the greater the chance she would develop a movement disorder.

The findings do need to be replicated, the study authors cautioned.

With hormones, timing may be everything.

"What seemed to matter was the length of time that women were exposed to hormone therapy," Sohrabji said. "The shorter that duration, the more likely they were to show dementia and movement disorders, and that's consistent with the idea that there's a critical period for hormone therapy. It also goes very well with data that recently emerged from the WHI regarding cardiovascular risk being much less in women who took estrogen earlier."

"All of these studies seem to be definitely pointing that there is a critical window for hormone therapy," she continued. "
'/>"/>