Women’s brain alters permanently after entering motherhood


Pregnancy has an impact not just on the body of a woman, but it also deeply affects her mind and thought process. A new research has found that women’s brain alters permanently once they experience pregnancy and enter motherhood.

The research conducted by Dr. Liisa Galea, at the University of British Columbia, showed that previous motherhood alters cognition and neuroplasticity in response to hormone therapy.

The study explained that that estradiol-based hormone therapy may have more beneficial effects, while estrone-based therapy may have more detrimental effect on cognition and demeWomen's brain alters permanently after entering motherhoodntia risk in women.The researchers investigated whether the different forms of the hormone estrogens could have different effects on rats that had experienced motherhood once and on those who had not.

There are three forms of estrogens: estradiol, estrone and estriol.

They found that estrone-based HT improved learning in middle-aged rats who had not experienced motherhood, but impaired learning in rats of the same age who experience motherhood.

“Hormones have a profound impact on our mind. Pregnancy and motherhood are life-changing events resulting in marked alterations in the psychology and physiology of a woman,” Galea said.

“Our results argue that these factors should be taken into account when treating brain disorders in women,” she said.

The findings were presented at ninth Annual Canadian Neuroscience Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia.