You hear an awful lot about the risk factors of waiting to have a child. But older moms may have a secret advantage. New research suggests that moms who have children at an older age may live longer than younger mothers.
For older women who still want to have kids, risk of chromosomal abnormalities in the child and risk of a miscarriage is still higher than in younger moms. According to a press release, a study conducted by Boston University School of Medicine was published in Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society. It said women with the ability to have a child after age 33 also have a greater chance of living longer than women who had children before age 30.
Corresponding author, Dr. Thomas Perls, said:
“Of course this does not mean women should wait to have children at older ages in order to improve their own chances of living longer. The age at last childbirth can be a rate of aging indicator. The natural ability to have a child at an older age likely indicates that a woman’s reproductive system is aging slowly, and therefore so is the rest of her body.”
The study included 462 women and concluded that women who had their last child after the age of 33 had twice the odds of living to 95 years or older compared to women who had their last child by age 29.
Another aspect of the study indicates that women’s genes contain genetic variants that slow aging, helping people live even longer.
Perls said:
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“If a woman has those variants, she is able to reproduce and bear children for a longer period of time, increasing her chances of passing down those genes to the next generation. This possibility may be a clue as to why 85 percent of women live to 100 or more years while only 15 percent of men do.”
