A cloud of controversy has surrounded HRT over the past few years, but a new Oregon Health & Science University study now shows that HRT may have a previously unknown positive effect. The researchers discovered that while women gradually become desensitized and less emotional to negative events as they grow older, women on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) seem to retain emotional sensitivity. Scientists have suspected about a link between sex hormones and emotion for some time. Specifically, they speculate that as a woman ages, and her hormones levels decrease, her emotions are blunted. This could explain why women on HRT retain (or regain) their emotional intensity levels into old age.
The study involved comparing the emotional responsiveness of two groups of post-menopausal women aged between 65 and 85, one group had used HRT for 20 years or more, while the other group had not used HRT at all. After the groups were exposed to a series of neutral or negative images and narratives, the women were asked to record the levels of emotional intensity that they felt toward each experience.
The researchers found that the group of women on HRT had much higher emotional responses to negative experiences, which was the complete opposite of the responses from the group not on HRT. Interestingly, the researchers said that the type or combination of HRT did not affect the study's outcome.
But before we all rush off to sign up for HRT, perhaps we should consider the possibility that the muting of emotional responses to negative, traumatic life events may be a natural and necessary process. Think about it...
Source: Oregon Health & Science University
