Abstract Cerebral lesions acquired in the perinatal period can induce cerebral palsy (CP), a multifactorial pathology leading to lifelong motor and cognitive deficits. Several risk factors, including perinatal hypoxia-ischemia (HI), can contribute to the emergence of CP in preterm infants. Currently, there is no international consensus on treatment strategies to reduce the risk of developing CP. A meta-analysis showed that magnesium sulfate (MgSO 4) administration to mothers at risk of preterm delivery reduces the risk of developing CP (Crowther et al., 2017). However, only a few studies have investigated the long-term effects of MgSO 4 and it is not known whether sex would influence MgSO 4 efficacy. In addition, the search for potential deleterious effects is essential to enable broad use of MgSO 4 in maternity wards. We used a mouse model of perinatal HI to study MgSO 4 effects until adolescence, focusing on cognitive and motor functions, and on some apoptosis and inflammation markers. Perinatal HI at postnatal day 5 (P(5)) induced (1) sensorimotor deficits in pups; (2) increase in caspase-3 activity 24 h after injury; (3) production of proinflammatory cytokines from 6 h to 5 days after injury; (4) behavioral and histological alterations in adolescent mice with considerable interindividual variability. MgSO 4 prevented sensorimotor alterations in pups, with the same efficacy in males and females. MgSO 4 displayed anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory effects without deleterious side effects. Perinatal HI led to motor coordination impairments in female adolescent mice and cognitive deficits in both sexes. MgSO 4 tended to prevent these motor and cognitive deficits only in females, while it prevented global brain tissue damage in both sexes. Moreover, interindividual and intersexual differences appeared regarding the lesion size and neuroprotection by MgSO 4 in a region-specific manner. These differences, the partial prevention of disorders, as well as the mismatch between histological and behavioral observations mimic clinical observations. This underlines that this perinatal HI model is suitable to further analyze the mechanisms of sex-dependent perinatal lesion susceptibility and MgSO 4 efficacy. Highlights • MgSO 4 affords cerebral and behavioral protection in perinatal HI lesioned pups • Perinatal HI induces long term sex-dependent cerebral and behavioral deficits • MgSO 4 tends to prevent behavioral deficits in perinatal HI lesioned adolescent females • MgSO 4 prevents region-specific tissue loss in perinatal HI lesioned adolescent males • MgSO 4 protection against HI in mice mimics its effects in cerebral palsy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]