Reproductive Life Factors and Hormone Therapy May Affect Women’s Risk of Parkinson’s Disease

The specific risk factors for the development of Parkinson's disease in women remain little studied and poorly known. Exposure to the hormones involved in female reproductive life is one of the avenues explored at the Epidemiology and Population Health Research Center (CESP) by a research team from Inserm, Université Paris-Saclay, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines with Institut Gustave Roussy, which compared the reproductive characteristics of nearly 1,200 women with Parkinson's disease with those of other women from the E3N cohort . Their findings show that age at first menstrual period, number of pregnancies, type of menopause and a molecule used to improve fertility are associated with a higher risk of developing the disease. This research, published in Brain , supports the role of hormonal exposures during the reproductive life of women - particularly estrogen levels - in Parkinson's disease and opens up avenues for targeted prevention strategies. Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease promoted by complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. It currently affects more than 6 million people worldwide and is 1.5 times more common in men. It is also comparatively less well known and studied in women.