A woman may be most likely to give birth in her 30s and go through the menopause in her 50s, with these life events causing hormonal changes that may accelerate ageing
By Alice Klein
28 July 2023
The rate at which women age may increase in their 50s if that is when they go through the menopause
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Women tend to experience accelerated ageing around the ages of 30 and 50, according to a study that analysed a wide range of molecular and physical markers. This may be due to hormonal changes that occur when some women give birth or go through the menopause.
In recent years, there has been growing recognition that ageing doesn’t always progress at the same pace and certain factors, such as stress and smoking, can speed it up.
Scientists have developed several ways to gauge the rate of ageing, including measuring the length of telomeres – pieces of DNA that protect the ends of chromosomes – in cells, analysing facial dimensions and looking at epigenetic markers – signs of genes being influenced by the environment – on DNA. However, the accuracy of these measures may be limited if they are used on their own, says Weiqi Zhang at the Beijing Institute of Genomics in China.
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Now, Zhang and her colleagues have conducted the most comprehensive study yet of ageing in women by combining multiple different measures.
The researchers recruited 113 women aged 20 to 66 who had no known medical conditions and were from Quzhou, a city in south-east China. No transgender people were included in the study.