At the University of Delaware, researchers have discovered that estrogen does not merely influence mood or metabolism — it physically reshapes the brain's mechanical architecture, altering the stiffness and elasticity of the hippocampus as hormone levels rise and fall across the reproductive cycle. Using magnetic resonance elastography, a technique that reads tissue like a geologist reads stone, the team has opened a new way of seeing how the brain adapts to hormonal life. The deeper question now emerging is what happens when that adaptation is interrupted — as it is during menopause — and whe