Cognition and the menopause transition: cross-sectional evidence from a large community cohort
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Subjective cognitive symptoms (brain fog, memory problems) are common in menopause, but whether these self-reported symptoms correspond to measurable deficits in cognition remains unclear. In 14,234 females (aged 45–55) from the REACT-Long Covid Study, we examined self-reported cognitive symptoms and objective cognitive performance in premenopausal, perimenopausal, postmenopausal participants. Global cognitive performance was derived from eight online tasks (‘Cognitron’). Perimenopausal (OR = 1.31 [1.18, 1.35], p = 0.015) and postmenopausal participants (OR = 1.13 [1.08, 1.32], p = 0.014) had higher odds of reporting cognitive symptoms than premenopausal participants. Objective cognitive performance differed minimally across menopause status groups, with perimenopausal participants showing marginally higher accuracy than premenopausal and postmenopausal participants (0.03–0.06 SD, p < 0.023). Across all menopause status groups, cognitive symptoms were weakly associated with objective performance but moderately related to psychological symptoms. These findings underscore recognising cognitive symptoms as a key component of menopausal care and integrating patient-reported outcomes with objective and biological measures of cognitive health.
Date Issued
2026-03-16
Date Acceptance
2026-02-06
Citation
npj Women's Health, 2026, 4
ISSN
2948-1716
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
npj Women's Health
Volume
4
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1038/s44294-026-00132-z
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
14
Date Publish Online
2026-03-16