Pregnancy can accelerate biological aging in women, according to a study.
Scientists at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York looked at the reproductive history and DNA samples of 1,735 people in a follow-up health study in the Philippines to study the effects of pregnancy on aging.
They worked out participants’ biological age using a genetic tool that calculates biological age based on patterns of six different “epigenetic clocks” – a process called DNA methylation.
A study of 825 young women found that each pregnancy a woman reported was associated with an additional two to three months of biological aging, and that women who reported becoming pregnant more often were six years older biologically. old at that time.
The relationship between fertility and biological aging remained even after the authors took into account socioeconomic status, smoking, genetic variation, and the built environment around the participants.
The author found a correlation between increasing biological aging and the number of pregnancies in 910 older men in the same health study.
“Our findings show that pregnancy accelerates biological aging, and that these effects are more pronounced in young, highly productive women,” said lead study author Kalen Ryan, researcher at the Columbia Center on Aging. Our results are the first to track the same women over time, linking changes in each woman’s number of pregnancies to changes in her biological age. “
Ryan points out the context: “Most reported pregnancies occur during adolescence, when women are still developing. We expect these pregnancies to be particularly difficult for pregnant women, especially if health services, resources, or other forms of support are limited.”
