Menopause is a milestone of aging, marking the end of a woman’s reproductive years. But researchers have always wondered whether menopause can hasten aging by triggering age-related changes or whether it’s simply a consequence of a body that’s reached a certain biological age.
In two new studies, one published in PNAS and the other in Biological Psychiatry, researchers have found strong evidence that menopause may actually accelerate aging in women.
Steve Horvath, professor of human genetics and biostatistics at University of California Los Angeles, and his team measured the changes in a group of women’s DNA and concluded that the cells of women who had experienced menopause speed up aging processes by about 6%.
Horvath and his team studied 3,100 women enrolled in theWomen’s Health Initiative, a large ongoing study of women’s biology, who provided samples of DNA from their blood, saliva and cheek tissue. They analyzed changes in the DNA called epigenetic alterations that serve as a marker for a cell’s age; these changes serve as a type of aging clock for the cells. “The epigenetic clock is similar to counting rings on a tree to assess its age,” says Horvath.
