FemHealth Project

​Women are at significantly greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and depression, and show higher prevalence of autoimmune conditions relative to men. Growing evidence suggests a critical role of sex hormone variation and immunological factors in the pathogenesis and maintenance of these illnesses impacting the brain. Yet, women’s brain health is historically understudied, and little is known about the mechanisms underlying epidemiological sex differences in disease, and how female-specific factors may influence women’s brain health across the lifespan. 

To address this critical knowledge gap, this project – coined FemHealth - will study how endocrine and immunological modulations in pregnancy and during the transition to menopause impact women’s brain aging and constitute risk for illnesses impacting the brain, such as AD and depression. This will be achieved by adopting a longitudinal multi-modal brain imaging approach combined with the use of big-data and state-of-the-art statistical methods for causal inference such as mendelian randomization. This unique combination of data mining and careful phenotyping allows for a better understanding of the dramatic changes in women’s brains during pregnancy and menopause. 

This knowledge is a critical step towards mechanistic models explaining sexual dimorphisms in disease susceptibility and a crucial prerequisite for the development of personalised mental health care in women.