Midlife and Menopause

1.5 million Americans experience menopause every year. Despite this, middle aged women feel unprepared for changes that occur during this important life transition. Changes that occur during menopause affect women's sleep, weight, mood, cognition, and overall health.

We are conducting several projects focused on sex differences, menopause, and midlife health including:

  • Risk and preventive factors for reduced cognitive function in perimenopause
  • Lifetime estrogen exposure and its associations with cognitive function and brain health
  • Sex differences in exercise, sleep, cognition, and brain imaging
  • Predictors of cognitive complaints during the menopause transition
  • Early childhood adversity as a predictor of midlife health and well being
  • Mitochondrial functioning in menopause and its potential role in Alzheimer's disease risk

Recent Example Publications

Losinski, G. M., Key, M. N., Vidoni, E. D., Clutton, J., Morris, J. K., Burns, J. M., Watts, A. (2025). Postmenopausal sex differences in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease biomarker risk profiles: An exploratory multimodal neuroimaging study. Frontiers in Global Women’s Health, 6, https://doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2025.1531062

Watts, A., Donofry, S., Ripperger, H., Eklund, N. M., Wan, L., Kang, C., Grove, G., Oberlin, L. E., Gujral, S. Vidoni, E. D., Burns, J. M., McAuley, E., Hillman, C. H., Kramer, A., F., Kamboh, M. I., & Erickson, K. I. (2025). Lifetime estrogen exposure and domain-specific cognitive performance: Results from the IGNITE study. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 17, 1524474. https://doi:10.3389/fnagi.2025.1524474

Wiranto, Y., Siengsukon, C., Vidoni, E., Mazzotti, D., Burns, J. M., & Watts, A. (2024). Sex differences in the role of sleep on cognition in older adults. Sleep Advances, 5(1), zpae066. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleepadvances/zpae066

Watts, A. & Jen, S. (2023). Context-dependent sexual changes during women’s midlife transitions. Journal of Women and Aging, 35(6), 542-556. https://doi.org/10.1080/08952841.2023.2195321  

Watts, A., Andrews, S., & Anstey, K. (2018). Sex differences in the impact of BDNF genotype on the longitudinal relationship between physical activity and cognitive performance. Gerontology, 64(4), 361-372. https://doi.org/10.1159/000486369

Social Media Information

Check out our social media pages on menopause and midlife health.

Facebook:   Women's Midlife Adventure Network

Instagram:   AmberWatts_PhD

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-watts-89bb5576/