Can We Extend Reproductive Life?

    Genetic variation affects at what age a woman enters puberty and menopause. The variability of the genes is half of the reason women experience these changes and the other half is due to environmental factors such as smoking. A new study is being conducted at the University of Exeter Medical School in Exeter, England. The team hopes that studying genes that link the age of women to menopause could one day help them closely predict the age a woman will enter menopause. Nowadays menopause is occurring when women are around 50, and if a woman smokes she will be closer to 40 when she enters menopause. With predicting the age of menopause, geneticists could also be able to tell when women become infertile. Infertility increases about 10 years before menopause occurs.

     So far the study has shown over 50 genetic variations that could link the age of a woman and the age when menopause occurs. A good amount of those genetic variations are used for repairing DNA. This could explain why geneticists believe that eggs are lost prior to menopause due to damage in DNA within the egg. By now knowing a little bit more of why and when menopause occurs, the team hopes to be able to delay menopause in order to extend reproductive life. Increasing the fertility of women by delaying menopause would give women over the age of 50 a chance to have children. They also hope this study can give insight on why women who go through menopause late have a higher risk of breast cancer. 

      I think it is great that this study could extend reproductive life. Some women are unable to find a man or do not settle down until later in life due to bad luck, career ambition, or simply because they did not want to. This study could give women a chance later on in life to have children. Some women feel that they have finally found a man that they see a future with and wish that they could have children, with the help of this research it may give couples another chance! Although I think this research is great and groundbreaking I could not imagine being 50 or older and bearing a child. I would imagine at least 50 to be hoping for grandchildren instead of children. 

     I am excited to see what this study will find about the linkage between late menopause and increased risk of breast cancer. Hopefully they will be able to speed up menopause, much like delaying it, to decrease the risk of breast cancer. 

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Here is an article about women over 50 giving birth!