New research from the University of Liverpool illustrates how accelerated reproductive ageing in females (e.g. early puberty or early menopause) is linked to experiences of mental health challenges.
This latest research builds on existing work in animals that shows how reproductive hormones help the brain manage and protect itself from stress. Researchers in the Institute of Population Health together with collaborators from Monash University, Australia, University of Melbourne, Australia and Yale University, North America have identified individual differences in functional brain organisation in humans which link faster reproductive ageing, a likely marker of greater biological wear-and-tear, to greater stress sensitivity.
Researchers analysed spontaneous brain activity and connectivity patterns observed when participants were at rest. Reproductive ageing was measured via parental reports of pubertal timing in adolescence and self-reports of reproductive cycle characteristics in middle-age. For all participants, stress exposure and sensitivity were assessed via self-reported experiences of pain and hostility from others.
The study found that early puberty at ages11-12 was related to more unstable functional connectivity patterns in brain regions tied to memory, imagination, vision, and attention. Brain connectivity patterns linked to early puberty overlapped with regions associated with psychosis vulnerability. Meanwhile, middle-aged women (aged 36-60 years) who progressed towards menopause faster than expected based on their chronological age showed more unstable functional connectivity patterns, suggestive of premature ageing, in areas involved in attention and memory. Brain patterns linked to early menopause also overlapped with regions associated with major depression vulnerability.
Psychology lecturer, Dr Raluca Petrican, who led the study said: “Our study suggests that faster reproductive ageing affects brain function in ways that could increase social stress sensitivity, with differences based on age and so is likely to lead to distinct mental health challenges in adolescence vs middle-age. In adolescents, delayed development of stable functional brain organisation associated with early puberty may increase psychosis risk. For middle-aged adults, early menopause is linked to faster decline in stable functional organisation for areas tied to visual processing and goal-directed attention, which possibly increases depression risk by limiting their ability to engage strategically with the external environment and cope effectively with stressors.
“This study represents a significant step in understanding the intricate relationship between reproductive ageing and mental health in females across different stages of life and could inform more personalised mental health interventions for females.”
The paper, ‘Functional Brain Network Dynamics Mediate the Relationship between Female Reproductive Aging and Interpersonal Adversity’, was published in Nature Mental Health (DOI: 10.1038/s44220-024-00352-9).