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Background and purpose: Hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) is used for symptomatic treatment of menopause. Some evidence suggests a proconvulsant effect of estrogen and an anticonvulsant role of progesterone. Thus, the use of exogenous sex steroid hormones might influence the course of epilepsy in peri‐ and postmenopausal women with epilepsy (WWE). We conducted a systematic review on the impact of HRT on the frequency of seizures of WWE. Methods: PubMed and Scopus were searched for articles published from inception until August 2022. Abstracts from the past 5 years from the European Academy of Neurology and European Epilepsy Congresses were also reviewed. Article reference lists were screened, and relevant articles were retrieved for consultation. Interventional and observational studies on WWE and animal models of estrogen deficiency were included. Critical appraisal was performed using the revised Cochrane risk‐of‐bias tool for randomized trials and ROBINS‐E tool. Results: Of 497 articles screened, 13 studies were included, including three human studies. One cross‐sectional study showed a decrease in seizure frequency in WWE using combined HRT, a case–control study showed an increase in comparison with controls, and a randomized clinical trial found a dose‐dependent increase in seizure frequency in women with focal epilepsy taking combined HRT. Ten studies addressing the impact of HRT in rat models were also included, which showed conflicting results. Conclusions: There is scarce evidence of the impact of HRT in WWE. Further studies should evaluate the harmful potential, and prospective registries are needed for monitoring this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attributes and predictors of long-COVID: analysis of COVID cases and their symptoms collected by the Covid Symptoms Study app. Keywords: COVID-19; diversity; gender; neurology; workforce EN COVID-19 diversity gender neurology workforce e73 e77 5 09/17/21 20211001 NES 211001 Introduction In this letter to the editor, the Task Force on Gender and Diversity Issues in Neurology founded under the auspices of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) addresses various gender issues that are arising during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pooled proportion of patients admitted to intensive care units was 10.96% (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.6-17.6), the overall pooled mortality was 5.6% (95% CI 4.2-7.5) and overall 22.9% (95% CI 13.3-36.5) of COVID-19 patients had severe disease. Those experiencing long-COVID were consistently older and more often female [24] Long-COVID-19 or post-COVID-19 neurological syndrome has as yet not been extensively researched. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Neurological disorders pose a profound unmet medical need for which new solutions are urgently needed. The consideration of both biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) differences between men and women is necessary to identify more efficacious, safer and tailored treatments. Approaches for putting sex and gender medicine into practice have gathered momentum across Europe, but it is currently unclear to what extent they have been implemented in the field of neurology and neuroscience., Methods: We mapped current activities in research, funding and education aimed at integrating sex and gender consideration in neuroscience and neurology in Europe. We examined and analyzed data gathered from (1) literature searches, (2) policy documents and reports by the European Commission and national funding agencies, (3) web-based searches, (4) "Web of Science", and (5) searches of project databases of funding agencies. An informative / non-systematic search was performed for sections on policies and funding, education, basic research, while a systematic literature and database review was conducted forquantitative analysis of research output and funded projects in terms of sex and gender analysis., Results: Our mapping shows that there is a growing interest and attention towards sex and gender consideration in neurological fields, both from funding agencies and researchers. However, most activities, especially for education, are limited to the individual motivation of researchers and are not organically built within curricula and strategic research priorities., Discussion: We recommend actions that might help increase the consideration of sex and gender specifically in the field of neuroscience and neurology., (This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.)