According to recent reports, hormone replacement therapy may be effective in preventing the onset of PD and such therapy could be used to alleviate some symptoms of the disorder.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic and Mayo Foundation in Rochester, Minnesota, studied 144 postmenopausal women, half of whom had PD. They found that 10% of the Parkinson's patients had been on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for at least six months, compared to 14% of the patients without the disease.

In a related study from University of Utah, researchers found that, of postmenopausal women with PD, those undergoing HRT scored an average of 16% higher on test of long-term verbal memory, compared to their counterparts not taking the therapy.