A study linking data from a collection of nationwide Danes found that women who were prescribed oral hormones were more likely to be diagnosed with depression.
In the first year after starting hormone therapy, the risk was highest for women 45 to 50 years old, but the association began to decline over time.
International experts outside the study are speaking out about the limitations of population studies like this, which casts into stark relief how little is known about menopause and depression.
According to a report by the University of Reading, the incidence of depression was greatest after initiation and then slowly declined.
It's not possible to separate out mood changes related to depression from any changes associated with medication or what led to the use of hormones.
This is not a trial of wills. It is not possible to tell if the factors that drive the decision to start hormone therapy are connected to the outcomes of interest here.
The concern that large population studies such as these can be misinterpreted by women and their clinicians leads to potentially worse outcomes for women already struggling with menopausal depression.
In the early 2000s, there were dramatic reductions in hormonal prescriptions due to confusion over women's health studies. Many women have been hurt by this.
As a retrospective observational study, there is an awful lot the Danes don't capture, which is a good reminder of the limitations of epidemiology studies.
Kulkani says that when some forms of estrogen designed to treat menopausal hot flushes don't reach the brain, they are lumped together with all the other estrogen hormone therapies.
Changing levels of hormones in the brain affect mood, and menopause hormone medications containing synthetic versions of sex hormones, estrogen, andprogesterone, either alone or in combination, work to stabilizing those fluctuations.
The study only had data on hospitalized cases of depression, and didn't capture the details of the depression women experienced and their personal history.
It doesn't take into account the important nuances of the diagnosis of depression or the large variation in the forms of hormone treatments.
According to ScienceAlert, the diagnosis of depression has changed a lot in the last 20 years.
Many new menopause hormones have been developed.
Depression is a spectrum condition that can be related to individual life events and respond differently to treatment.
There are a lot of differences between what women get and what happens afterwards. Depression is caused by trauma in a lot of women.
These types of retrospective studies are not the type of research that is needed to move the field forward.
It's clinical trials that carefully diagnose depression and follow women through treatment, specifying the type, timing, and dose, and neuroscience studies looking at how hormones affect the brain that will help better understand menopausal depression and the most effective treatments for women.
There is desperately needed research in this area, but what is really needed is a big, prospective detailed clinical trial.
The issue of women's health in general, but especially menopause, is poorly studied. The majority of people with depression don't get enough treatment.
Depression in women is so misunderstood that it can be hard to get a diagnosis.
She says that this is a reflection of sexism in research and care for women.
Many health-care professionals don't believe that menopause is the cause of depression in women, so they don't prescribe hormones.
Lack of knowledge about menopause and how it affects the brain is one of the reasons clinicians are reluctant to prescribehormone therapy for menopausal depression.
Women, trans men, and non-binary people are more likely to be diagnosed with depression during menopause. Some people with a history of depression may experience a resurgence of symptoms.
The incidence of depression peaks around the time of menstruation. It's suicide rates as well. Depression can be diagnosed years later if at all.
Complicating matters is the fact that psychological symptoms can precede physical symptoms of menopause by up to five years.
It's clear that more research is needed to understand the complex issues of menopause and depression.
There was a study published.
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