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Research into Menopause and Brain Health at Havens Health
At Havens Health, we are passionate not only about administering quality healthcare, but also about improving the care we can offer in the future.
That’s why we are collaborating with researchers at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School to facilitate exciting research investigating menopause and brain health. Together, we are looking at how memory and thinking changes during menopause, including when starting hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
We are helping to connect researchers with women living in Peacehaven to make participation available in our community. This is particularly exciting as research is often focused more within the city of Brighton rather than reaching communities along the coast.
Together, we hope to better understand the relationships between the menopause, starting HRT, and effects on the brain, thinking about what factors may lead to different outcomes for different people. This aims to support a future of increasingly personalised menopause care.
This research is not possible without the involvement of the public, and through this collaboration, you have the opportunity to take part!
If you would like to learn more about sex hormones, the menopause and brain health, Havens Health are happy to be hosting a public outreach evening – ‘Menopause and Brain Health’ on Wednesday 2nd December 2026. Join local clinical experts and collaborating researchers from the BSMS for an interactive and collaborative discussion about this area of science, and learn more about the two research projects that we are working on together, with refreshments provided! If you would like to, you can also enrol into one of these studies and complete your first research procedures while you are there! Attendance is free and open to all, but places are limited, so please register here to secure your spot:
Insert booking link from HH here (Adam is setting up I think?) or contact the researchers for any further information:
- Lab contact information
If you are experiencing menopausal symptoms, whether or not you are thinking of starting HRT (we are looking for both those starting HRT and those who aren't), you can take part in one of two research projects, currently recruiting with Havens Health.
Researchers from Dr Claire Lancaster’s lab at BSMS are interested in ways that we can act from midlife to protect the brain, aiming to reduce the risk of eventually developing conditions such as dementia in late-life. Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, differently and disproportionately affects women, and so they particularly want to ensure that gender is properly considered for effective, personalised prevention. HRT has been investigated previously as a potential protective treatment against future decline in the brain, but with mixed results.
However, we know that the best approach to managing the menopause and brain health is highly individual, so we need to understand more about the different factors which might affect the potential benefits or risks of different strategies for managing menopause. Researchers are therefore investigating how pre-existing health factors may affect changes in memory and thinking during the menopause, including after starting HRT, in two parallel research projects.
If you choose to take part in one of these studies, you will either give a blood sample or genetic swab, and then complete memory and thinking tasks online 3 times over a year. Researchers will then be able to look at whether the changes in your memory and thinking are associated with different markers of risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We hope that in the future this can contribute to better informed menopausal care decisions, allowing individuals to consider protection of their brain as they find the best choice for them.
If you are interested in participating, you have the option to join one of these studies at the ‘Menopause and Brain Health’ public outreach evening on the 2nd December 2026 and even complete your first study session, including giving a blood sample. You can also contact the research team at any time to get more information and find out how to take part. Researchers will also be working on site during upcoming menopausal clinic hours at Havens Health, so when you come to discuss the menopause or HRT with our specialist clinicians, you can also meet 1-to-1 with a researcher to discuss the studies further or complete your first research procedures.
If you would like to get more information about these studies, find out how to sign up, or check whether researchers will be available at the time of an upcoming clinic appointment, please don’t hesitate to contact the research team who will be happy to answer any questions:
- Lab contact information
Published: Nov 9, 2026