Women’s Expected Lifespan Linked To Maternal Age at Last Child’s Birth

No one is certain about how long they'd live. However, researchers of a new study have recently suggested that "leukocyte telomere length" may provide some fundamental insights into a woman's longevity and further exhibit how maternal age the last child's birth impacts telomere length and long-term health.

The study results were published early today in The North American Menopause Society or NAMS's journal, Menopause.

Reports said this is the first time a woman's leukocyte telomeres' length has been associated with her forecasted lifespan.

Telomeres are described as "repeating DNA-protein complexes" that shield the ends of chromosomes. They have proven to be crucial for the maintenance of genomic stability.

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Research recently confirmed that maternal age at last birth is favourably linked to telomere length, which means that women who had their last child delivered later in life were ‘likely to have longer telomeres,’ a biomarker for longevity and long-term health.

The Link Between Telomere Length and Various Conditions 

Past research proposed telomere length's link to different chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease or CVD, type 2 diabetes, some neurologic conditions, and different cancer types.

A previously-conducted study proposed that maternal age at the birth of a woman's last child impacted telomere length.  

Meanwhile, this new, larger-scale research comprised over 1,200 perimenopausal and postmenopausal women belonging to different ethnicities and backgrounds from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Furthermore, different from past studies, this new finding considered "sociodemographic factors linked to childbearing patterns, as well as health conditions.

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Maternal Age

This new research confirmed that maternal age at last birth is favourably linked to telomere length, which means that women who had their last child delivered later in life were "likely to have longer telomeres," a biomarker for longevity and long-term health.

Such a finding was limited to women who had one or two live births, or those who used oral contraceptives. The said study findings were featured in the article entitled, "Maternal age at last birth and leukocyte telomere length in a nationally representative population of preimenopausal and postmenopausal women."

Commenting on this new finding, NAMS medical director, Dr. Stephanie Fubion said, further study is needed to identify whether older age among women at last birth leads to telomeres to lengthen, or if telomere length could serve as a substitute for overall health and corresponds with the ability of a woman to bear a child even at a later age.

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Telomere Length

For a long time now, telomere length had been known to be an essential biomarker in human aging and illness, although most studies on the link between telomere length and health have looked just in one type of tissue, which is the blood.

This limitation has brought out the question of whether blood cells are a dependable substitute for other tissues for scientists investigating the effects of aging, illness, and lifestyle factors, particularly "on telomere length.

In new research, which Science's September 11 issue published addresses the question by evaluating further telomere length in over 20 various human tissue types, from almost 1,000 single post-mortem donors.

As a result, the researcher found that telemeter in whole blood can function as a stand-in for telomere length in the majority of the tissues, and more extensively strengthens existing studies on the connection "between telomere length, ancestry and aging."

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