486
Views
14
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Hormone Therapy

Effect of estrogen and testosterone replacement therapy on cognitive fatigue

, , &
Pages 173-176 | Received 20 Feb 2012, Accepted 17 Jul 2012, Published online: 25 Oct 2012
 

Abstract

Both estrogen and testosterone insufficiency has been associated with reduced psychological well-being including fatigue. However, hormonal replacement studies on fatigue are rare. Therefore, we wanted to study the effect of testosterone and estrogen replacement therapy on cognitive fatigue and the relation between sex hormone levels and cognitive fatigue in oophorectomized women. Fifty women with surgically induced menopause (mean age: 54.0 ± 2.9 years) were randomly assigned to treatment with estradiol valerate in combination with testosterone undecanoate or placebo for 24 weeks in a double-blind cross-over study. Neuropsychological tests and questionnaires were used to assess cognitive fatigue and psychological well-being. Cognitive fatigue was significantly associated to poor self-rated health and higher body mass index but not to general psychological well-being or sex hormone levels. Treatment with testosterone + estrogen had no significant effect on cognitive fatigue but the results indicated a curvilinear relation for hormonal levels. The estrogen/testosterone ratio was more related to functions rather than high or low hormone levels per se. We found that cognitive fatigue is frequent in oophorectomized women and negatively associated to self-perceived health and positively associated to BMI. A well-balanced ratio between estrogen and testosterone levels may be important for cognitive fatigue.

Acknowledgments

This study has been supported by the Swedish Medical Research Council (grant number 05982); an unrestricted grant from Organon, Sweden; and from FoU Centrum Sörmland Sweden (grant number 82100).

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no declaration of interest.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access
  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 65.00 Add to cart
* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.