For four years, researchers tracked 2,362 women, between the ages of 42 and 52, who at the start of the study, had not yet reached menopause. The women were tested for verbal and working memory and speed at which they processed information throughout the four stages of menopause transition: premenopausal (no change in menstrual periods), early perimenopausal (menstrual irregularity but no "gaps" of 3 months), late perimenopausal (having no period for three to 11 months) and postmenopausal (no period for 12 months).
With repeated testing, information processing speed improved during every stage, however, during late perimenopause the degree of improvement was only 28 percent as great as premenopause. Improvements in verbal memory during early perimenopause were 29 percent as large as improvements observed in premenopause, and only 7 percent as large during late perimenopause.
So, menopause doesn't make you stupid, but perimenopause may make you a little slower on the uptake. But you already knew that. In fact, 60 percent of women report they have memory problems during the menopause transition, according to Gail Greendale, MD, from UCLA's medical school. "The good news is that the effect of perimenopause on learning seems to be temporary. Our study found that the amount of learning improved back to premenopausal levels during the postmenopausal stage."
