Longitudinal Change in Cognitive Performance of Women Post-Oophorectomy

The impact of estrogen on cognition is well documented throughout the literature (Phillips ; Sherwin, 1992; Berman et al. 1997; Lord et al. 2010) Women with oophorectomy prior to spontaneous menopause have an increased risk of dementia in later years (Sherwin, 1988; Rocca et al., 2007; Phung et al. 2010; Bove et al. 2014). Furthermore, estrogen interacts with the e4 variant of the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE4), a risk factor associated with Alzheimerâ s disease, thereby increasing cognitive decline in an estrogen-depleted state (Stone et al., 1997). This study investigated longitudinal changes in verbal and spatial memory in women with a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy prior to spontaneous menopause. Our analysis revealed a significant decline with time post-oophorectomy on key measures of verbal memory in the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning (RAVLT) and Verbal Fluency tasks moderated by a deleterious effect of APOE4. This research supports a decline in verbal memory performance following oophorectomy.M.A