Cerebral white matter lesions increase with age and are more severe in women, which may contribute to the higher incidence of dementia in older women.
The prevalence and the degree of cerebral white matter lesions increased with age. Women tended to have a higher degree of white matter lesions than men. This may underlie the finding of a higher incidence of dementia in women than in men, particularly at later age.
F-E de Leeuw (2001) studied this question.