Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Will menopause hurt your job chances?

Women of a certain age are already having trouble finding jobs when they have to and this is not going to help, but at least it validates the fact that we aren't totally crazy!

Menopause Hurts Women's Ability To Learn
Memory, Processing Speed Don't Work As Well


Women about to enter menopause may not be able to learn things as well as during other stages of life, a new study said.

Researchers from UCLA studied more than 2,300 women between the ages of 42 and 52. They were given test of memory and thinking speed.

The study found that processing speed improved with repeated testing during the early stages of menopause, but that scores during late perimenopause did not show the same degree of improvement.

That is, the further they got into menopause, the less quickly they could pick up new skills.

Dr. Gail Greendale, who was involved in the study, said in a news release that the results match what 60 percent of women already said was true -- they have memory problems while starting menopause.

"The good news is that the effect of perimenopause on learning seems to be temporary. Our study found that the amount of learning improved back to premenopausal levels during the postmenopausal stage," Greendale said.

The study also found that taking estrogen or progesterone hormones before menopause helped verbal memory and processing speed. But taking them after the final menstrual period had a negative effect.

The research was published in the journal Neurology.

Let's just keep this our little secret, ok?

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:52 AM

    I'll keep it under my hat! ;) Good post!

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  2. This is something to remember! I didn't know that menopause affected so many aspects of a woman's life. It's so interesting to learn that is can influence your memory, and retention. I can see how that would make it harder for a woman to find a job.

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