How stress and brain signals affect women's health during menopause
Center for Stress and Neural Regulation of Reproductive Aging Health Outcomes
This program looks at how life stress, neighborhood factors like light at night, and brain signaling relate to hot flashes, sleep, mood, memory, and cognitive aging in midlife and older women.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Brigham and Women's Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11167092 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would be part of a program that combines human studies and animal research to learn how stress is passed through the brain to affect health during and after menopause. The team uses a 25+ year cohort of women to track vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes), sleep quality, mood, memory, and cognitive tests while measuring neighborhood and individual stressors, including artificial light at night. A Sleep and Light Research Core supports standardized measurement of sleep and light exposure across projects that share the same participants and cognitive outcomes. Complementary animal and lab studies test brain mechanisms that could explain the patterns seen in people.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal participants are midlife or older women around the menopausal transition who experience hot flashes, sleep disruption, mood changes, memory complaints, or who are already part of the long-term cohort.
Not a fit: Men, younger premenopausal women, and people without menopausal symptoms or related sleep/memory concerns are unlikely to benefit directly from participating.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lead to ways to reduce hot flashes, improve sleep and mood, and lower the risk of accelerated cognitive aging and dementia in women.
How similar studies have performed: Prior studies have linked stress, sleep disruption, hot flashes, and mood with memory and cognitive decline, but combining neighborhood light exposure, a shared long-term cohort, and linked animal work is relatively novel.
Where this research is happening
Boston, United States
- Brigham and Women's Hospital — Boston, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Joffe, Hadine — Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Study coordinator: Joffe, Hadine
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.