Estrogen Birth Control May Protect Women’s Brains As They Age

Key TakeawaysLong-term exposure to estrogen might protect brain health in womenWomen who took birth control pills had healthier brains as seniorsThey also benefited from both birth control and hormone therapy for menopause.THURSDAY, June 25, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Women on the pill appear to have healthier brains as they grow older, a new study says.Taking hormone-based birth control as a younger woman appears to protect the brain, maintaining the size of regions vital to memory, cognition and information, researchers report in the July 1 issue of the journal NeuroImage.Women’s brains also benefited if they took birth control pills during their reproductive years, and then hormone therapy when they entered menopause, results show.“It’s showing a protective effect — using estrogen-based hormone therapies was beneficial for the brain in older women,” co-lead author Amber Watts, a professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, said in a news release.“What's unique about this paper is we looked at the use of hormone-based medications both in early adulthood and in midlife, and the use of both of those was associated with brain health in older adult women,” Watts said.For the new study, researchers analyzed brain scans of 459 women participating in a study of exercise and brain health. As part of the study, women were asked about their use of birth control and menopause hormone therapy.“Estrogen is neuroprotective,” Watts said. “It’s beneficial for white matter integrity. It helps protect neurons and strengthens neural connections. It is also important for vascular function.“One of the things we get wrong about estrogen is people think of estrogen as this thing that has to do with reproduction,” she continued. “But really, estrogen is very important for a lot of different body systems. It’s important for the brain, it's important for the heart, it's important for bone density and it’s important for the immune system.”Results showed that women who used birth control had greater brain volume as seniors than those who didn’t.Combined use of birth control and menopause hormone therapy also was associated with larger brain volumes in senior women, researchers said.In addition, women who experienced menopause at a later age also had thicker brain matter in multiple regions that are vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease, the study says. Delayed menopause means they were exposed to natural ovarian hormones for a longer period, researchers noted.This new evidence should encourage women to turn to hormone therapy during menopause, researchers said.“There's been a controversy over hormone therapy use. There was a study back in 2002 called the Women’s Health Initiative, and its results scared everybody out of using estrogen therapy,” Watts said.“For a long time, people stopped prescribing and using those therapies, thinking that it was going to lead to negative outcomes,” she continued. “Since then, there's been a lot of revisiting of those findings and discovering that there were some problems with them and that they didn't apply to everyone.”Women make up nearly two-thirds of Alzheimer’s disease patients, researchers said. These findings indicate birth control and hormone therapy might help protect these women, although more research is needed to fully understand the potential connection.“I don't think people really stop and think about that,” Watts said. “When they think about taking birth control for the purpose of either regulating their cycles or for contraception, I don't think what people are thinking about is, ‘How will this affect my health later?’ ”More informationThe Alzheimer’s Association has more about women and Alzheimer’s disease.SOURCE: University of Kansas, news release, June 23, 2026 .What This Means For YouTaking birth control and menopause hormone therapy might help protect women’s brain health..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Estrogen Birth Control May Protect Women’s Brains As They Age

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