Genetic variations could one day help predict timing of menopause

 

     Recent studies have shown that there are numerous genetic variants that are involved in determining the age of the onset of menopause. People who are born with ovaries have a set number of oocytes that will either mature into eggs or be destroyed if they contain damaged DNA. As these people get older, the number of these cells continues to decrease until this store of eggs is completely gone and menopause sets in. Researchers have found 290 different variants that determine when that store of eggs will become depleted. The biggest gene to affect this is CHEK2, which can delay menopause for a few years by affecting the CHEK2 protein. Researchers are looking into how they can target this gene in order to help women who want to have kids later in life. This study has only been done in mice so far but one day they hope to be able to see it in humans. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02128-y

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190612110127.htm

Genes Help Set Menopause Timing

     This article explained how genes can have an impact on the timing of menopause. These genetic variations will play a role in predicting what age a women will go through menopause. Menopause usually occurs in women aged anywhere from 45-50. But, you also have a small percentage who go through premature menopause or other individuals who had a procedure done that stopped themselves from producing eggs. This is the period when a women stops menstruating which is the end of their reproductive period.
     In the new study, researchers from 177 institutions worldwide analyzed the DNA of about 70,00 women of European ancestry. They found more than 50 genetic variations inlcuding 18 previously discovered ones that seem to be linked to the age a women reaches menopause (Dotinga, 2015).  They stated that the primary reason to women losing eggs, which leads to menopause was because of damage to the DNA within those eggs. As more research develops and more genes are discover in the process the scientists will have a better idea on when a women enters menopause. The most interesting thing about this article to me was them mentioning that a better understanding of the genes in the future can actually lead to ways of delaying menopause and increasing reproductive life in women.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2015/09/28/genes-help-set-menopause-timing-study

http://www.reproductivefacts.org/uploadedFiles/ASRM_Content/News_and_Publications/Journals_and_Newsletters/Menopausal_Medicine/2011/MenMed_0511.pdf

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. 

For the full article, visit here!

Here is an article about women over 50 giving birth!

Birth control shot

New trend: Birth control shot. Convenient alternative for women who do not want to remember to take the daily pill, however, research shows that the pill may be doing more damage than good. On November 1, 2011 an article posted in ScienceDaily, connects medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), the hormone active in the birth control shot Depo Provera, and many widely used menopausal hormone therapies, to impaired memory in rodents. The Bimonte-Nelson lab first linked MPA to memory loss in rats while studying it as a component of hormone therapy for menopause. The study lasted approximately a year, using three groups of rats, plus a control group that did not receive the hormone. The first group only received MPA as young adults, to model birth control. The second only received it post-menopausal to model hormone therapy. The third group received it at both young adulthood and maturity, to model women who used it for birth control and as a post-menopausal hormone therapy. Results showed that animals that had been given the drug at any point in their life were memory impaired at middle age compared to animals that never had the drug. One of the lead researchers stated, “You really cannot understand aging without understanding menopause or reproductive senescence, because hormones change as aging ensues. As well, you cannot talk about aging and cognition and gain insight into those dynamic and interrelated changes without acknowledging that both hormones and aging have such a profound effect on the brain and its function.” This study is currently in process and results are pending.


Researcherss Blair Braden and Heather Bimonte-Nelson in the lab.