Evaluation of high-dose estrogen and high-dose estrogen plus methyltestosterone treatment on cognitive task performance in postmenopausal women.

OBJECTIVES To investigate the cognitive effects of high-dose oral estrogen alone or in combination with oral methyltestosterone in postmenopausal women. METHODS Participants were tested with a randomized, double-blind design on the Identical Pictures, Cube Comparisons, Building Memory and Shape Memory tasks before and after 4 months of hormone treatment. RESULTS Women receiving estrogen and methyltestosterone maintained a steady level of performance on the Building Memory task, whereas those receiving estrogen alone showed a decrease in performance. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that the addition of testosterone to high-dose estrogen replacement exerts a protective effect on memory performance in postmenopausal women.