During mid-life, women experienced not only physical but also neurological transition. Because of this, many women suffer from physiological and/or psychological menopausal symptoms. Although hormone therapy (HT) was broadly used to alleviate menopausal symptoms, HT showed inconsistent effects in case of psychological symptoms. Moreover, mid-life women's brains have distinct characteristics than in other periods of life, it is needed to study psychological symptoms in shifted brain network of mid-life women. As an alternative, inhalation of fragrances may alleviate psychological menopausal symptoms. To characterize the alleviation mechanism by fragrances, we tested the effect of fragrances on menopausal symptoms using electroencephalographic (EEG) methods. We hypothesized that fragrance could restore mid-life women's brain response to stressful situations. We tested six fragrance conditions, including no-odor condition (solvent only) in twenty-eight mid-life women (49.75 years±3.49). Our results showed that fragrances increased alpha power and decreased β/α ratio depending on the severity of menopausal symptoms in a stressful situation. Our study would be helpful in psychological menopausal symptom alleviation as well as fragrance screening for well-being in mid-life.

中文翻译：

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脑电图揭示了芬芳对中年女性更年期症状有积极影响。

在中年时期，女性不仅经历了身体的过渡，而且经历了神经的过渡。因此，许多妇女患有生理和/或心理上的更年期症状。尽管激素疗法（HT）广泛用于缓解更年期症状，但在出现心理症状时HT表现出不一致的效果。而且，中年女性的大脑比其他人生时期具有明显的特征，有必要研究中年女性大脑网络转移时的心理症状。作为替代，吸入香气可以缓解更年期心理症状。为了表征芳香剂的缓解机制，我们使用脑电图（EEG）方法测试了芳香剂对更年期症状的影响。我们假设香水可以恢复中年女性的 大脑对压力情况的反应。我们在28位中年女性（49.75岁±3.49）中测试了六种香味条件，包括无味条件（仅溶剂）。我们的结果表明，根据紧张状态下更年期症状的严重程度，香精增强了α功效，并降低了β/α比。我们的研究将有助于缓解心理上的更年期症状，并有助于中年进行香精筛选。