Over the last decade, there has been a lot of research that has gone into uncovering various connections and risks between women’s reproductive health and long-term cognitive wellbeing.

While IVF can be a wonderful and rewarding experience for a person’s life, prolonged fertility can also be complex and potentially increase the risk of dementia.

Dementia as a whole is on the rise, with more people suffering with the condition in nursing care for dementia homes than ever before. But what are the risks, how are they linked and what has the science found?

Researchers have explored a number of reproductive factors and their association with dementia risk to try and establish hypotheses around the link between the two. Among the factors they have looked at are age at menarche, parity, age at first childbirth and age at menopause. Among the things they have found, include:

The hormonal fluctuations throughout women’s reproductive timespan may play a role in the risk of dementia. This is particularly the case with estrogen levels, with it implicated in promoting synaptic plasticity and neuronal survival. As there is a decline in levels of estrogen during the menopause, it has been linked to changes in our brain’s structure and opening up a higher risk of neurodegenerative diseases.

Age of first child birth and parity is believed to influence a woman’s cardiovascular system. To reduce the risk of dementia, a healthy and strong cardiovascular system is recommended and complications to that during pregnancy such as gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia can affect that later in life, which in turn can increase the risk of dementia.

Of course, it isn’t just about physical health necessarily. Women’s reproductive choices can also be very dependent on lifestyle factors. For example, socioeconomic status can have a large impact on IVF treatment, while typically those in less economically developed countries and regions are more likely to reproduce regularly, all of which can have an impact on cognitive functioning.

Understanding how these factors pose a higher risk of dementia is what researchers are currently trying to discover in order to limit that risk for those that wish to reproduce later in their life.

At present, there is still a lot of work to be done to confirm a strong link between prolonged fertility and dementia risk. More research is certainly needed to understand the mechanisms and main contributing factors, but at the same time the evidence is suggesting that there needs to be a more holistic approach to women’s health that not only considers the reproductive health of a woman but also other risk factors later in life, such as dementia.

Over the next few years we can expect to see more insight and research released around this, something which will really help drive women’s health forward and help limit the risks of those likely to develop dementia as they reach the latter stages of their life.