having trouble finding words? Estrogen deprivation may be the culprit
 

Whether made prematurely menopausal by chemotherapy, whether already naturally menopausal, whether taking AIs or other antihormonals...effect of replacing estrogen (inadvisable in ER+ breast cancer, probably also in ER- bc as hormonal status can change) seems to be different depending on age when given:

Horm Behav. 2008 Jan;53(1):159-69. Epub 2007 Oct 26. Links
Estradiol interacts with the cholinergic system to affect verbal memory in postmenopausal women: evidence for the critical period hypothesis.

Dumas J, Hancur-Bucci C, Naylor M, Sites C, Newhouse P.
Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont College of Medicine, 1 South Prospect St., Burlington, VT 05401, USA.
Estradiol has been shown to interact with the cholinergic system to affect cognition in postmenopausal women. This study further investigated the interaction of estradiol and cholinergic system functioning on verbal memory and attention in two groups of healthy younger (ages 50-62) and older (ages 70-81) postmenopausal women. Twenty-two postmenopausal women were randomly and blindly placed on 1 mg of 17-beta estradiol orally for 1 month then 2 mg for 2 months or matching placebo pills after which they participated in three anticholinergic challenge sessions when verbal memory and attention were assessed. Subjects were administered either the antimuscarinic drug scopolamine (SCOP), the antinicotinic drug mecamylamine (MECA), or placebo. After the first challenge phase, they were crossed over to the other hormone treatment for another 3 months and repeated the challenges. Results showed that estradiol pretreatment significantly attenuated the anticholinergic drug-induced impairments on a test of episodic memory (the Buschke Selective Reminding Task) for the younger group only, while estradiol treatment impaired performance of the older group. The results suggest that younger subjects may experience more cholinergic benefit from estradiol treatment than older subjects, supporting the concept of a critical period for postmenopausal estrogen use.
PMID: 17964576 [PubMed - in process]

I can't find the words to thank you for posting this Lani. LOL

Good one, hutch!


Words, especially names, usually come to me in a delayed reaction type presentation.

So shouldn't this be taken into consideration when studying chemobrain?
 

I do not fully understand this study and why they gave people scopolamine. But I think that they're saying that the younger group benefited from the addition of estrogen while the older group did not, as it related to cognitive function. So it might be the same for deprivation - more consequences for those who are perimenopausal? And if that's true, then don't you think that they should be considering AI use to be a confounder when they study chemobrain? And don't you wish that they'd mention these questions to women considering taking an AI? Especially those women for whom an AI offers only a small increased benefit?

Debbie Laxague