Early Trauma, Exaggerated Neuroinflammation, and Women’s Neurodegenerative Risk

By: Afsa Tassnim, GEMS Our Own English High School - Sharjah

Early life trauma leaves a biological “memory” in the brain and immune system that persists across the lifespan. By priming microglia, disrupting HPA axis regulation, and reprogramming stress-immune pathways, trauma establishes a heightened inflammatory baseline that increases vulnerability to later insults. In women, these effects are amplified bysex-specific neuroimmune differences and the loss of estrogen’s protective role during menopause or surgical interventions. Together, these processes accelerate neuroinflammation, synaptic dysfunction, and neurodegenerative cascades, helping to explain why women disproportionately suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and other inflammation-driven disorders. The evidence reviewed here highlights neuroinflammation as the final common pathway where biology (microglial priming, hormonal changes) and lived experience (early adversity) converge. Importantly, it underscores the need for sex-aware neuroscience and medicinefrom basic research that incorporates female models, to clinical strategies that account for women’s trauma histories and hormonal transitions.