Only one in five women know that they’re more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than men, according to a recent survey. Maria Shriver wants that number to climb—and for women to start thinking about their brains decades before symptoms show up. She sat down with TIME deputy editor Kelly Conniff to talk about what women need to understand about brain health, and why the conversation can't wait until later in life.
She became passionate about brain health when her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2003. At the time, Shriver said, there wasn’t much information available to help families understand the disease or prepare for how their lives would change. She approached figuring that out as both a journalist and a daughter, while watching family members grapple with the diagnosis in different ways.
Her kids adjusted easily, she recalled, simply accepting the grandfather in front of them as he was. The man she saw didn't match the father in her memory. Her mother, meanwhile, was losing something else entirely—a spouse, a confidant, a partner.
More than two decades later, scientists know more about how to detect Alzheimer’s early and what may help reduce the risk. Yet a striking disparity remains: Women account for about two-thirds of diagnoses. One growing area of research focuses on how the brain changes during menopause, and whether interventions during that period could reduce Alzheimer’s risk, Shriver said.
It’s unclear whether hormone therapy, for example, could help. Yet “there’s more to women’s health than menopause,” Shriver added. Brain health, including mental health, is important to talk about throughout every stage of a woman’s life.
She pointed to the recent trial of Lindsay Clancy as evidence that women are talking more openly about maternal mental health. She recently had a conversation with six or seven other mothers who discussed the case and began sharing their own emotional and postpartum experiences. Clancy, a Massachusetts mother, was tried on charges of killing her three young children in 2023.
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