Hormone Therapy Can Ease Menopause Mood Swings

TUESDAY, Sept. 15, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Hormone therapy can help quell mood swings associated with menopause, a new study says.

The proportion of women with severe mood symptoms declined from 62% to just under 25% after they were prescribed hormone therapy, researchers reported recently in the journal Menopause.

Hormone therapy “was associated with improvements in psychological and sleep symptoms across diverse patient groups, including individuals with psychiatric histories and those using antidepressant medications,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Samantha Fairweather, an ob/gyn resident at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City.

As many as 68% of menopausal women are estimated to suffer from depressed mood, irritability, anxiety and mental exhaustion, researchers said in background notes.

These are typically caused by hormone changes that occur during menopause, and they can last a decade or more, researchers said. Estrogen in particular has been linked to better brain blood flow and neuron function.

For the new study, researchers tracked 260 women treated at the NYU Langone Health Center for Midlife Health and Menopause between January 2023 and April 2025.

All the women were prescribed federally approved hormone therapy, and completed a menopause symptom checklist before starting treatment and again at a follow-up visit typically scheduled three months later, researchers said.

At the start, more than 3 in 5 women (62%) had severe mood problems.

But after hormone therapy, fewer than 1 in 4 women (25%) said they were continuing to have mood swings, the study found.

Improvement was greatest among women with the worst mood swings, and response did not differ by a woman’s age, menopause stage, psychiatric history or antidepressant use, researchers said.

“The menopause transition can be a very tumultuous time, and one of the things I hear most often from patients is, ‘I don’t feel like myself anymore,’ and then the tears come,” Dr. Monica Christmas, associate medical director for The Menopause Society, said in a news release.

“It can be incredibly distressing, affecting personal relationships and interfering with performance at work,” continued Christmas, who was not involved in the new study. “Recognizing and addressing mood-related symptoms can make a real difference.”

More information

Harvard Medical School has more about menopause symptoms.

SOURCES: The Menopause Society, news release, Sept. 9, 2026; Menopause, Sept. 8, 2026