Estrogen replacement therapy and frontotemporal dementia
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Updated: Sep 25, 2026

An In Vivo Estrogen Deficiency Mouse Model for Screening Exogenous Estrogen Treatments of Cardiovascular Dysfunction After Menopause
Published on: August 13, 2019
Andrew J Levine1, Linda Hewett
1Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California Los Angeles, 760 Westwood Plaza, Room C8-747, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1759, USA. ajlevine@mednet.ucla.edu
Objective:
To examine the relationship between estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Methods:
We examined the files of thirty female patients diagnosed with FTD at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)-Alzheimer's Disease Research Center in Fresno between the years of 1994 and 1999. Twenty-one patients (70%) were found to have been taking ERT at the time of their evaluation. This was compared with an estimate of estrogen use in a similar cohort from the general population (24%).
Results:
Chi-square (chi(2)) analysis found this number to be significantly greater than estimates from the general population significant (chi(2)[df=1, N=30]=34.803, P<0.01).
Conclusions:
Three potential explanations for the findings are put forth, including an intriguing neurobiological relationship between estradiol and tau, the complex protein implicated in the etiology of FTD.
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