www.nzherald.co.nz
Open in
urlscan Pro
2600:1415:10::17ce:c7db
Public Scan
URL:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/is-delaying-menopause-the-key-to-longevity/DIQM5BGHVJHLLHHDYMCQVC5IC4/
Submission: On June 26 via manual from NZ — Scanned from NZ
Submission: On June 26 via manual from NZ — Scanned from NZ
Form analysis 1 forms found in the DOM
<form class="email-boost__form theme-form" data-test-ui="email-boost--form">
<div class="input-group input-group--checkbox theme-form-section-lifestyle__checkbox">
<div class="input-wrapper" data-test-ui="marketingOptIn"><input class="input-checkbox" type="checkbox" id="marketingOptIn" name="optIn" checked=""><label class="input-label " for="marketingOptIn"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" focusable="false" class="checkbox-icon" data-test-ui="svg__svg">
<use xlink:href="/pf/resources/dist/svg/spritemap.svg?d=780#check-rounded"></use>
</svg></label><span class="label-string">Please email me competitions, offers and other updates. You can stop these at any time.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="input-group input-group--newsletter"><label class="input-label hidden" for="emailAddress">Email address</label>
<div class="input-wrapper" data-test-ui="emailAddress"><input class="input-email" type="text" id="emailAddress" name="emailAddress" data-test-ui="email-boost--form-email" placeholder="Enter your email address" value=""></div><button
class="form-button form-button--submit theme-form-section-lifestyle__button" id="newsletterSignupSubmit" type="submit" data-test-ui="email-boost-submit">Sign Up</button>
</div>
</form>Text Content
MenuSearch SubscribeSign In Thursday, 27 June 2024 Search SUBSCRIBE TO PREMIUMSign InRegister My News Your news how you want it. On the go and no time to finish that story right now? Your News is the place for you to save content to read later from any device. Register with us and content you save will appear here so you can access them to read later. Find out moreRegister now NZ Herald Home Herald PremiumThe ListenerViva PremiumToday's Paper New Zealand CrimePoliticsHealthEducationEnvironment and ClimateNZ Herald FocusScam UpdateKāhu, Māori ContentPropertyWeather Business Small BusinessOpinionPersonal FinanceEconomyBusiness TravelMarkets with MadisonBusiness ReportsDeloitte Top 200 AwardsBusinessDesk BusinessDesk Sport Premium SportOlympicsRugbyCricketRacingNetballLeagueFootballGolfMotorsportUFCBasketballTennisCyclingAthleticsSailing World Lifestyle The SelectionEat WellRoyalsRelationshipsDIYFood & DrinkFashion & BeautyWellbeingPets & AnimalsMilford's Investing PlaceCompetitionsRestaurants & Menus Entertainment SpyTVMoviesBooksMusicCultureCompetitions AucklandWaikatoWellingtonCanterbury/South Island Regions The Northern AdvocateBay of Plenty TimesWhanganui ChronicleRotorua Daily PostHawke's Bay Today Communities The Northland AgeHauraki Coromandel PostKatikati AdvertiserWaikato HeraldTe Puke TimesTe Awamutu CourierTaupō & Tūrangi HeraldStratford PressNapier CourierHastings LeaderCentral Hawke's Bay MailWhanganui MidweekManawatū GuardianBush TelegraphHorowhenua ChronicleKāpiti News Video NZ news videoBusiness videoPolitics videoSport videoWorld news videoLifestyle videoEntertainment videoTravel videoMarkets with MadisonKea Kids PodcastsOpinionPolitics Property OneRoof PropertyCommercial Property OneRoof Property Travel Travel newsNew Zealand TravelAustralia TravelInternational TravelRail Holidays Open Justice Kāhu, Māori Content Te Rito Talanoa, Voices of the Pacific Te Rito Car newsRuralTechnologyOur Green Future Puzzles & Quizzes CodecrackerSudokuCrosswordsWordsearchCryptic crosswordDaily quizzes ClassifiedsPhotosMeet the Journalists Weather KaitaiaWhangareiDargavilleAucklandThamesTaurangaHamiltonWhakataneRotoruaTokoroaTe KuitiTaumarunuiTaupoGisborneNew PlymouthNapierHastingsDannevirkeWhanganuiPalmerston NorthLevinParaparaumuMastertonWellingtonMotuekaNelsonBlenheimWestportReeftonKaikouraGreymouthHokitikaChristchurchAshburtonTimaruWanakaOamaruQueenstownDunedinGoreInvercargill NZME Network NZ HeraldThe Northern AdvocateThe Northland AgeThe AucklanderWaikato HeraldBay Of Plenty TimesRotorua Daily PostHawke's Bay TodayWhanganui ChronicleThe Stratford PressManawatu GuardianKapiti NewsHorowhenua ChronicleTe Awamutu CourierVivaEat WellOneRoofDRIVEN Car GuideThe CountryPhoto SalesiHeart RadioRestaurant Hub Premium: Revealed - sliding levels of trust and confidence in police, people feel less safe after dark Subscribe Recommended for youRefresh for more 'We have to act': Lawson tipped to win race with Ricciardo for 2025 F1 seat 43 runs! England test bowler belted for record worst over 'Slayer of all slayers': Tributes flow for dead Gisborne fishermen Promoted content Home / Lifestyle Premium IS DELAYING MENOPAUSE THE KEY TO LONGEVITY? 27 Jun, 2024 05:00 AM7 minutes to read New York Times By Alisha Haridasani Gupta and Dana G. Smith Saveshare Share this article facebookcopy linktwitterlinkedinredditemail Scientists are studying how to keep the ovaries working longer — and, potentially, prevent age-related diseases in the process. In March, First Lady Jill Biden announced a new White House women’s health initiative that highlighted a seemingly obscure research question: what if you could delay menopause and all the health risks associated with it? The question comes from a field of research that has started to draw attention over the last few years, as scientists who study longevity and women’s health have come to realise that the female reproductive system is far more than just a baby-maker. The ovaries, in particular, appear to be connected to virtually every aspect of a woman’s health. They also abruptly stop performing their primary role in midlife. Once that happens, a woman enters menopause, which accelerates her aging and the decline of other organ systems, like the heart and the brain. While women, on average, live longer than men, they spend more time living with diseases or disabilities. The ovaries are “the only organ in humans that we just accept will fail one day”, said Renee Wegrzyn, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, a government agency tasked with steering Jill Biden’s mission. “It’s actually kind of wild that we all just accept that.” It is the ovaries’ truncated life span that also makes them such a promising site for experimentation. Researchers think that prolonging their function, better aligning the length of their viability with that of other organs, could potentially alter the course of a woman’s health — and longevity research overall. Wegrzyn said she hoped the White House initiative, in which researchers and startups are competing for a slice of the programme’s US$100 million (NZ$163m) budget, would highlight the connection between menopause and longevity, while also attracting more funding and talent to the field. KEEP UP WITH THE LATEST IN LIFESTYLE AND ENTERTAINMENT Get the latest lifestyle & entertainment headlines straight to your inbox. Please email me competitions, offers and other updates. You can stop these at any time. Email address Sign Up By signing up for this newsletter, you agree to NZME’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. “If you don’t think about ovarian function during aging,” said Jennifer Garrison, an assistant professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, “then you’re kind of missing the boat.” Advertisement Advertise with NZME. HOW THE OVARIES ARE INVOLVED IN AGING The ovaries function like the control centre of “a complex network of signalling in a woman’s body”, Garrison said. Through hormones like estrogen and progesterone, as well as other chemicals, the ovaries communicate with and influence virtually every other organ. Scientists don’t yet know exactly how the ovaries do this, but what they do know is that when the ovaries stop functioning normally, all kinds of problems arise. In young women, for example, that can manifest as polycystic ovary syndrome, which increases the risk for metabolic conditions, heart disease, mental health problems and more. Blood, Sweat and Tears: The Hot Mess What is menopause and why is there so much stigma surrounding it? Video / Mike Scott ... Video Player is loading. Play Video PlaySkip Backward Mute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded: 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind liveLIVE Remaining Time -0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters * Chapters Descriptions * descriptions off, selected Captions * captions settings, opens captions settings dialog * captions off, selected Audio Track Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-TransparentText BackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentCaption Area BackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaque Font Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop shadowFont FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps Reset restore all settings to the default valuesDone Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Close Modal Dialog This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button. NORTHLAND POWER OUTAGE AND SUPER RUGBY FINAL | FOCUS MORNING BULLETIN JUNE 21, 2024 UP NEXT: NOW PLAYING • Blood, Sweat and Tears: The Hot Mess What is menopause and why is there so much stigma surrounding it? Video / Mike Scott ... As a woman’s eggs are depleted, eventually bringing menopause, the ovaries’ chemical communications seem to go quiet. That corresponds to an increased risk for dementia, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and other age-related diseases. The earlier a woman enters this life phase, the higher her risk for developing those conditions, and the shorter her life is likely to be. And in women who enter menopause prematurely because their ovaries are surgically removed, the risks for chronic conditions are greater still. That suggests that even after the ovaries stop releasing eggs in menopause, they may still be somewhat protective to a woman’s overall health, said Dr Stephanie Faubion, the medical director of the Menopause Society. It’s just unclear how. RELATED ARTICLES New Zealand 'IT WAS TORTURE': WATCH THE TRUTH ABOUT MENOPAUSE ON BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS 04 Mar 05:00 AM Lifestyle 'MENOWASHING': EXPERT CONCERNED ABOUT RISE OF 'GARBAGE' ALTERNATIVE MENOPAUSE TREATMENTS 20 Apr 05:00 AM Lifestyle MID-LIFE DEMENTIA LINK: HOW MENOPAUSE CHANGES THE BRAIN 27 Nov 05:00 AM New Zealand WOMEN FORCED TO SHOP AROUND FOR HORMONE PATCHES, SOME MISSING OUT ALTOGETHER 18 Jun 05:00 AM As of now, these connections are correlational. Scientists don’t know if the ovaries themselves are the drivers of health in aging, or if there is something else that accelerates aging that then leads to ovarian dysfunction, Faubion said. Studies have found that several factors, such as smoking, body mass index and adverse stressors throughout life, contribute to the early onset of menopause. Black and Hispanic women tend to hit menopause earlier than white women. Genetics might also play a role. “Is the ovary just a marker of overall health? Or is it that the ovary is timing out and causing poor health?” Faubion said. “I mean, it’s chicken-egg.” HOW DELAYING MENOPAUSE COULD EXTEND LIFE SPAN There is some evidence, mostly in animals, that suggests prolonging ovarian function can improve health and increase longevity. In mice, for example, transplanting an ovary from a younger animal into an older one lengthens the older mouse’s life. Scientists are now experimenting with different ways to prolong ovarian function and delay the onset of menopause in humans. One company, Oviva Therapeutics, is in the early stages of testing — mainly in mice and cats — whether a pharmaceutical version of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), which modulates how many follicles mature in each menstrual cycle, could be used to reduce how many eggs are lost. (Typically, a woman loses dozens of eggs per cycle even though, in most cases, she only ends up ovulating one of them.) Think of AMH as “a porous cloth that you cover around the ovary”, said Daisy Robinton, co-founder and CEO of Oviva, which is competing for some of the funding from the White House initiative. The level of AMH dictates the size of the holes in the cloth; if there are huge gaping holes (in other words, there’s low AMH), a bunch of eggs can leave in each cycle. But if there are only small holes (meaning there’s high AMH), fewer eggs can get out. Advertisement Advertise with NZME. The idea is that if a woman loses fewer eggs, she can hold on to her ovarian reserves and the ovaries’ functionality for longer, Robinton said. A clinical trial under way at Columbia University is also trying to slow the rate at which women lose their eggs. The study is testing the use of an immunosuppressive drug called rapamycin — which is used to prevent organ transplant rejection and has become a darling of the longevity movement — in women ages 35-45 to see how it affects their ovarian reserve. Rapamycin influences the number of eggs that mature each month, and the drug has been shown in mice to extend ovarian function. The study is ongoing, and the researchers don’t know which participants received the medication or a placebo, but the lead scientist on the trial, Dr S. Zev Williams, said two patterns had already emerged: some women appear to have a normal decline of ovarian reserve, which can be measured via ultrasounds and AMH levels, but in others, “it seems to have been altered”, he said. “So, you know, that’s promising.” Williams, an associate professor of women’s health at Columbia, is also applying for the health agency funding. The experts were explicit that the goal of this type of research was not to prolong women’s periods indefinitely, nor to make pregnancy possible at age 70 — though the treatments could potentially extend fertility. The accelerated decline of the ovaries during midlife also makes them “a good model for being able to study aging, and being able to do so within a limited period of time”, Williams said. Other anti-aging scientists are also experimenting with rapamycin, for instance, but it’s virtually impossible to determine if the drug is extending human life without conducting a study over several decades. With the ovaries, researchers can see if there’s an effect much faster. What’s more, “if we can understand why ovaries age prematurely and what’s driving that, that will almost certainly tell us something important about aging in the rest of the body”, Garrison said. “And then that, of course, becomes important not just for females, but also for males.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Alisha Haridasani Gupta and Dana G. Smith Illustration by: Sara Andreasson ©2024 THE NEW YORK TIMES UNLOCK THIS ARTICLE AND ALL OF OUR HERALD PREMIUM CONTENT BY SUBSCRIBING TO NZ HERALD PREMIUM $1.50per weekSee all offers Already a subscriber? Sign in here or Saveshare Share this article Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read. facebookcopy linktwitterlinkedinredditemail Recommended for youRefresh for more TALANOA INFLATION CONTRIBUTES TO 'SHARP INCREASE' IN PACIFIC CHILD OBESITY 21 Jun 12:22 PM LIFESTYLE OLDER ADULTS AT GREATER RISK FROM CONCUSSION DUE TO BRAIN ATROPHY 26 Jun 11:40 AM WHANGANUI CHRONICLE FARMER FEARS CUTTING STOCK NUMBERS ONLY WAY TO MEET ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS 26 Jun 02:22 PM BAY OF PLENTY TIMES SHE LOST ONE DAUGHTER. SURGERY SAVED ANOTHER. NOW SHE FEARS FOR HER YOUNGEST 23 Jun 05:03 AM NEW ZEALAND CHLÖE SWARBRICK: CLIMATE CRISIS REQUIRES RATIONAL, IMMEDIATE AND BOLD ACTION 27 Jun 05:00 AM PAID PROMOTED CONTENT LATEST FROM LIFESTYLE WHEN WILL PRINCESS ANNE BE RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL? 27 Jun 09:00 AM Sir Tim Laurence gives update on wife’s health after horse ‘hit her on the head’. COLD SEASON: IMMUNITY BOOSTING FOODS YOU SHOULD BE EATING THIS WINTER 27 Jun 09:00 AM 'FIRE TO HER': PRINCESS CHARLOTTE'S IMPRESSIONABLE EXCHANGE WITH A-LISTER 27 Jun 07:09 AM Premium ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSHES ARE BETTER FOR YOUR TEETH - BUT THE RIGHT TECHNIQUE MATTERS MORE 26 Jun 06:00 PM sponsored TV SERIES WITH NO SPOKEN DIALOGUE * * * * * * * NZ Herald * About NZ Herald * Meet the journalists * Newsletters * Classifieds * Help & support * Contact us * House rules * Privacy Policy * Terms of use * Competition terms & conditions * Our use of AI Subscriber Services * NZ Herald e-editions * Daily puzzles & quizzes * Manage your digital subscription * Manage your print subscription * Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper * Subscribe to Herald Premium * Gift a subscription * Subscriber FAQs * Subscription terms & conditions * Promotions and subscriber benefits * Bundle subscriptions NZME Network * The New Zealand Herald * The Northland Age * The Northern Advocate * Waikato Herald * Bay of Plenty Times * Rotorua Daily Post * Hawke's Bay Today * Whanganui Chronicle * Viva * NZ Listener * What the Actual * Newstalk ZB * BusinessDesk * OneRoof * Driven CarGuide * iHeart Radio * Restaurant Hub NZME * About NZME * NZME careers * Advertise with NZME * Digital self-service advertising * Book your classified ad * Photo sales * NZME Events * © Copyright 2024 NZME Publishing Limited ACCESS NEW ZEALAND'S BEST JOURNALISM FROM $1.50 PER WEEK Subscribe now WEEKLY For the first 8 weeks, pay just $1.50PER WEEK Subscribe now Renews $6 per week best value ANNUAL Save over $103 (compared to Weekly) $149FOR 1 YEAR Subscribe now Renews $199 per week Learn more TOP search by queryly Advanced Search