Inclusion Criteria:
- Female between 45-60 years of age.
- Diagnosis of relapsing remittent multiple sclerosis or healthy control with no indications of multiple sclerosis
- Able to adhere to all testing and study requirements and willingness to participate in the full study duration
Exclusion Criteria
- Male
- Younger than 45 years of age or older than 60 years of age.
- Clinically isolated syndrome and progressive disease evolution.
- Contraindications to MRI (i.e., metal in their body or claustrophobia), pre- existing brain injury, neurological disease (other than MS).
- History of severe mental illness (including psychotic disorder, bipolar disorder, or substance use disorder).
- If treated with an antidepressant medication, change in antidepressant dosage within 8 weeks prior recruitment.
- Any other neurological conditions other than multiple sclerosis
- Pregnancy.
- Received hormone therapy before, during, or after menopause.
- Had relapses in the last 4 weeks.
- Had a full hysterectomy
Detailed eligibility will be discussed when reaching out to the study team.
This project hopes to learn how menopause is impacting the bodies and lives of female multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to enable better management of the disease. We want to see how menopause affects cognition in females with MS compared to healthy females.
This study will compare menopause-related changes in brain structure, function, metabolism, and vasculature in females with MS versus healthy females. Additionally, we want to look at the relationship between imaging biomarkers and cognition across the three stages of menopause. An imaging biomarker is a biologic feature detectable in an image.
Participants in this study will receive cognitive testing (taking about 1.5 hours), a blood draw (taking about 10 minutes), and a non-contrast MRI scan of their head (taking about 1 hour).
Total study participation will take roughly 3 hours. The cognitive testing, blood draw, and MRI may take place on either on the same day or on separate dates depending on schedules.