A UT professor and several graduate students will study the role the brain plays in menopause after receiving a $1.4 million grant. Researchers are hopeful their work might aid future studies on women's health issues related to menopause.

Andrea Gore, an associate professor in the College of Pharmacy and lead researcher for the study, has been trying to understand how the brain controls reproduction since her time as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the mid-1980s.

"Most people do not think of the brain as a source of hormones," Gore said. "The brain can also sense levels of estrogen and then increase or decrease its output in order to maintain overall balance of hormones."

Gore said she has a goal to find out whether some of the symptoms that come along with menopause are preventable.

The natural loss of estrogen during menopause may cause discomfort, insomnia and even disease. The chance of getting osteoporosis is increased, because bone mass is maintained by estrogen, she said.

Taking hormone replacements is right for many, but may not be the best for those at risk of breast cancer, she said. Gore stressed that women need and should seek their doctor's advice about menopause.

The National Institute on Aging approved the $1.4 million grant, which is expected to cover the cost of the project for the next five years.

"We're hoping by funding this study, as well as others dealing with estrogen and the aging brain, that we will be able to understand how best to replace the functions that are lost or impacted by the loss of estrogen," said Andrew Monjan, the chief of the neurobiology aging branch at the National Institute on Aging.

Results of this research may also help understand why women become infertile, even as early as their late 30s and 40s.

"We want to know what changes occur in the brain's hormones that may be responsible for some of this loss in fertility," Gore said. "This research may eventually help women who want to have babies later in life," she said.

Jackie Maffucci, a neuroscience science graduate student and one of the leaders of the study, said before becoming involved in the project, she never thought beyond the traditional association of menopause with ovarian decline.

"It's interesting to come into the lab and look at this whole other field of research that shows that the brain is another big cause, if not the primary cause," Maffucci said.

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