Evaluation of high-dose estrogen and high-dose estrogen plus methyltestosterone treatment on cognitive task performance in postmenopausal women.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the cognitive effects of high-dose oral estrogen alone or in combination with oral methyltestosterone in postmenopausal women.

METHODS

Participants were tested with a randomized, double-blind design on the Identical Pictures, Cube Comparisons, Building Memory and Shape Memory tasks before and after 4 months of hormone treatment.

RESULTS

Women receiving estrogen and methyltestosterone maintained a steady level of performance on the Building Memory task, whereas those receiving estrogen alone showed a decrease in performance.

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicate that the addition of testosterone to high-dose estrogen replacement exerts a protective effect on memory performance in postmenopausal women.