Proc Natl Acad Sci USA

Does pregnancy speed up biological aging?

April 10, 2024

Researchers from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York studied the reproductive histories and DNA samples of more than 1,700 young people in the Philippines. They determined participants’ biological age using six different “epigenetic clocks,” or genetic tools that estimate biological age based on DNA methylation.

Among a subset of 825 women studied, researchers found that each individual pregnancy a woman reported was associated with an additional two to three months of biological aging.

Women who reported being pregnant more often during a six-year follow-up period showed a greater increase in biological aging during that period.

Study details:

• Cross-sectionally, gravidity was associated with all six measures of accelerated epigenetic aging in women (n = 825).
• Furthermore, longitudinal increases in gravidity were linked to accelerated epigenetic aging in two epigenetic clocks (n = 331).
• In contrast, the number of pregnancies a man reported fathering was not associated with epigenetic aging among same-aged cohort men (n = 910).
• These effects were robust to socioecological, environmental, and immunological factors, consistent with the hypothesis that pregnancy accelerates biological aging and that these effects can be detected in young women in a high-fertility context.

Sources:

Ryan CP, et al. (2024, April 16). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. Pregnancy is linked to faster epigentic aging in young women. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38588424/

Grierson, Jamie. (2024, April 8). The Guardian. Pregnancy may speed up biological ageing, study finds. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/08/pregnancy-may-speed-up-biological-ageing-study-finds