Research from Columbia University reveals that pregnancy accelerates biological aging in women, with multiple pregnancies intensifying this effect. This phenomenon, studied through ‘epigenetic clocks’, was not observed in men, highlighting the unique impact of pregnancy and breastfeeding on women’s biological aging. The findings emphasize the need for increased support for young mothers.
Each additional pregnancy in early adulthood was linked to an estimated acceleration of biological aging by 2.4 to 2.8 months.
A recent study from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health indicates that pregnancy might have an aging effect. Conducted with 1,735 young individuals in the Philippines, the findings reveal that women who have experienced pregnancy appear biologically older than those who have not. Moreover, the study suggests that the more pregnancies a woman reports, the older she seems in biological terms.
Notably, the number of pregnancies fathered was not associated with biological aging among same-aged cohort men, which implies that it is something about pregnancy or breastfeeding specifically that accelerates biological aging. The findings are published in The Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
This study builds on epidemiological findings that high fertility can have negative side effects on women’s health and longevity. What was unknown, however, was whether the costs of reproduction were present earlier in life, before disease and age-related decline start to become apparent. Until now, one of the challenges has been quantifying biological aging among the young. This challenge was overcome by using a collection of new tools that use DNA methylation (DNAm) to study different facets of cellular aging, health, and mortality risk. These tools, called ‘epigenetic clocks’ allow researchers to study aging earlier in life, filling a key gap in the study of biological aging.
Findings on Pregnancy and Aging
“Epigenetic clocks have revolutionized how we study biological aging across the lifecourse and open up new opportunities to study how and when long-term health costs of reproduction and other life events take hold,” said Calen Ryan Ph.D., lead author of the study and associate research scientist in the Columbia Aging Center.
“Our findings suggest that pregnancy speeds up biological aging, and that these effects are apparent in young, high-fertility women,” said Ryan. “Our results are also the first to follow the same women through time, linking changes in each woman’s pregnancy number to changes in her biological age.”
The relationship between pregnancy history and biological age persisted even after taking into account various other factors tied to biological aging, such as socioeconomic status, smoking, and genetic variation, but were not present among men from the same sample. This finding, noted Ryan, points to some aspect of bearing children – rather than sociocultural factors associated with early fertility or sexual activity – as a driver of biological aging.
Despite the striking nature of the findings, Ryan encourages readers to remember the context: “Many of the reported pregnancies in our baseline measure occurred during late adolescence, when women are still growing. We expect this kind of pregnancy to be particularly challenging for a growing mother, especially if her access to healthcare, resources, or other forms of support is limited.”
Contextualizing the Findings
Ryan also acknowledged that there is more work to do, “We still have a lot to learn about the role of pregnancy and other aspects of reproduction in the aging process. We also do not know the extent to which accelerated epigenetic aging in these particular individuals will manifest as poor health or mortality decades later in life.”
Ryan said that our current understanding of epigenetic clocks and how they predict health and mortality comes largely from North America and Europe, but that the aging process can take slightly different forms in the Philippines and other places around the world.
“Ultimately I think our findings highlight the potential long-term impacts of pregnancy on women’s health, and the importance of taking care of new parents, especially young mothers.”
Reference: “Pregnancy is linked to faster epigenetic aging in young women” by Calen P. Ryan, Nanette R. Lee, Delia B. Carba, Julie L. MacIsaac, David T. S. Lin, Parmida Atashzay, Daniel W. Belsky, Michael S. Kobor and Christopher W. Kuzawa, 8 April 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2317290121
Co-authors are Christopher Kuzawa, Northwestern University, Nanette R. Lee and Delia B. Carba, USC-Office of Population Studies Foundation; Julie L. MacIsaac, David S. Lin, and Parmida Atashzay, University of British Columbia; Daniel Belsky Columbia Public Health and Columbia Aging Center; Michael S. Kobor, University of British Columbia, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health R01AG061006; National Science Foundation BCS 1751912; University of British Columbia UBC 60055724.
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