Perimenopausal use of hormone therapy is associated with enhanced memory and hippocampal function later in life.

Evidence suggests that initiation of some forms of hormone therapy (HT) early in the perimenopausal or postmenopausal stage might confer benefit to verbal memory and the neural systems underlying memory, whereas late-life initiation confers no benefit or harm. This "critical window hypothesis" remains a topic of debate. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined the long-term impact of perimenopausal HT use on brain function during performance of verbal and figural memory tasks.

Duration of vasomotor symptoms in middle-aged women: a longitudinal study.

Objective: Vasomotor symptoms adversely affect the quality of life and functional status of most women during the menopausal transition, but little is known about how long these symptoms last. The most effective treatment, hormone therapy (HT), carries risks and benefits that depend on the timing and duration of use. In this study we sought to estimate the duration of vasomotor symptoms in a longitudinal study.

Sexual function, dysfunction, and sexual distress in a prospective, population-based sample of mid-aged, Australian-born women.

Introduction: Previous, population-based studies investigating the risk factors for sexual distress have not drawn on longitudinal data.

Aims: Determine the prevalence of sexual distress and dysfunction, explore factors associated with/predictive of sexual distress, and describe changes in sexual function over a decade in a population-based sample of mid-aged women.

Methods: Eleven-year prospective study of Australian-born women, aged 45-55 years, and menstruating at baseline.

New findings from non-linear longitudinal modelling of menopausal hormone changes.

Changes in FSH and estradiol (E2) across the menopausal transition are clearly not linear. The present study utilizes data from 204 women who completed the 13-year prospective Melbourne Women's Midlife Health Project. E2, FSH, symptoms, self-rated health, mood, sexual function and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk were measured longitudinally.

Mammographic densities during the menopausal transition: a longitudinal study of Australian-born women.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate hormonal and other factors associated with mammographic density during the menopausal transition and in postmenopause.

Design: Mammograms were obtained from 252 participants in the Melbourne Women's Midlife Health Project-a longitudinal population-based study that included annual interviews, blood collection, and physical measurements; 869 original films of the right craniocaudal view were digitized. Total area of the breast and the area of dense tissue were measured, and the percentage of mammographically dense tissue (PMD) was calculated.

Modeling women's health during the menopausal transition: a longitudinal analysis.

Objective: There has been controversy about the relative effects on various health outcomes of hormonal, psychosocial, and lifestyle changes during the menopausal transition. In previous studies the risk factors for one particular health endpoint have been analyzed separately. Separate analyses do not provide an overall view of the relationships between all the variables or the relative importance of different factors.

The relationship between prospectively assessed body weight and physical activity and prevalence of radiological knee osteoarthritis in postmenopausal women.

Objective: To determine the effect of weight and physical activity on the prevalence of radiological knee osteoarthritis (OA) in a cohort of middle-aged women.

Methods: The longitudinal phase of the Melbourne Women's Mid-life Health Project is a population-based prospective study of 438 Australian-born women who have been followed annually over 11 years. Of these women, 257 (59%) remained in longitudinal assessment at eleventh year of followup, and 224 of these women agreed to undergo radiographs of their knees.

Sexuality.

This article reviews changes in sexual function in middle-aged women and discusses how these changes relate to aging, hormone alterations, and psychosocial and physical factors. A Medline search of population-based studies that measured sexual function, menopausal status and/or hormone levels was conducted. Longitudinal findings are from the Melbourne Women's Midlife Health Project, a population-based sample of 438 Australian-born white women, aged 45 to 55 years, who were menstruating at baseline.

Hot flushes during the menopause transition: a longitudinal study in Australian-born women.

Objective: To investigate factors associated with the presence, severity, and frequency of hot flushes.

Design: A 9-year prospective study of 438 Australian-born women, aged 45 to 55 years and menstruating at baseline. Annual fasting blood collection, physical measurements, and interviews including questions about bothersome hot flushes in previous 2 weeks were performed.

Hyperhomocysteinemia is associated with lower performance on memory tasks in post-menopausal women.

Increased levels of total homocysteine (tHcy) have been associated with lower performance on tests of cognitive function, and may be a potential preclinical marker for Alzheimer's disease. Most reports have focused on older cohorts, but raised tHcy levels, in association with cognitive changes may be occurring in earlier years. Scores for verbal and working memory were compared to plasma homocysteine levels for 200 healthy women aged 56--67 (mean=60).

A population-based study of depressed mood in middle-aged, Australian-born women.

Objective: There has been controversy about the relationship between menopause and depression. This study utilizes a unique prospective population-based data set of middle-aged, Australian-born women to identify determinants of depressed mood.

Design: The Melbourne Women's Midlife Health Project sample consisted of 438 women aged 45 to 55 at baseline; they were followed annually for 11 years.

Normative verbal and non-verbal memory test scores for Australian women aged 56-67.

Objective: To establish normative data for tests of verbal and non-verbal memory for midlife Australian-born women, and in so doing investigate factors which contribute to variation in test performance.

Method: Two hundred and fifty-seven healthy women aged 56-67 years (mean age 60), who are participating in the Melbourne Women's Midlife Longitudinal Health Project, were administered two word list learning tasks, a story recall task (the East Boston Memory Test) and the Faces subtest from the Wechsler Memory Scale III as part of a larger neuropsychological battery. Word list learning tasks consisted of either 16 semantically related words, derived from the California Verbal Learning Test II, or a list of 10 unrelated words.

Childhood abuse and its association with mid-aged women's sexual functioning.

The aim of this study was to investigate the association of recalled childhood sexual and physical abuse with current sexual functioning in mid-life. The sample was participants in the longitudinal population-based cohort of mid-aged women, The Melbourne Women's Midlife Health Project. Three hundred sixty two of the women (92% of the available cohort) were administered the Violence Questionnaire in the sixth year of follow-up.

Association between hormonal changes at menopause and the risk of a coronary event: a longitudinal study.

Objective: To investigate the association of hormone levels at menopause, lifestyle variables, and body composition with the predicted 10-year risk of a coronary event, calculated using the PROCAM scoring system, in a population-based sample of Australian-born, middle-aged women.

Design: A 9-year prospective study of 438 Australian-born women, who at baseline were aged 45 to 55 years and had menstruated in the prior 3 months. Interviews, fasting blood, and physical measurements were taken annually.

The relative effect of endogenous estradiol and androgens on menopausal bone loss: a longitudinal study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the relative strength of the association of endogenous estradiol and androgens with bone loss at the lumbar spine and femoral neck during the menopausal transition.

Design: A longitudinal study of a population-based cohort of 159 Australian-born women who at baseline had a mean age of 50.0 years (SD=2.

Central abdominal fat and endogenous hormones during the menopausal transition.

Objective: To investigate the effect of endogenous hormone levels on central abdominal fat during the menopausal transition in a population-based cohort of Australian-born women.

Design: Prospective observational study.

Setting: Population-based sample.

Predictors of declining self-rated health during the transition to menopause.

Objective: To determine factors associated with declining self-rated health as measured annually for 8 years in a prospective population-based cohort of middle-aged Australian-born women. In particular, to investigate the potential role of the menopausal transition in changing self-rated health.

Methods: A total of 262 women from the Melbourne Women's Midlife Health Project were asked to rate their present health compared with other women about the same age as worse than, the same as or better than most.

Partnership for Parkinson's disease research: patient-researcher-clinician-sponsor.

Parkinson's disease (PD) appears to arise from the interaction of three events-an individual's inherited genetic susceptibility, their subsequent environmental exposures, and their age. We clearly need to intensify efforts to understand the environmental triggers of PD, the importance of the timing of exposure to these triggers, and the interplay between these exposures and a persons underlying genetic constitution and susceptibilities. This knowledge, once generated, will lead to better detection of the earliest stages of PD, to improved therapeutics, and most importantly, to viable prevention strategies so that people need not suffer from environmentally-caused PD.

Physical activity: measurement in mid-life women.

Objectives: To review methods of assessing physical activity, and to compare two different questionnaires that were administered in the Melbourne Women's Midlife Health Project (MWMHP).

Methods: Cross-sectional and subsequent longitudinal population-based study of Australian-born women who were aged 45-55 at baseline. Self-administered modified form of the Minnesota Leisure-Time Physical Activity questionnaire and interviewer-administered short physical activity question.