Philippines

One of the most dramatic changes a woman’s body goes through is when she becomes pregnant and passes through the beautiful process of bringing a new human to life. During nine months and several months after, a woman goes through a lot of changes, both mentally and physically, as we are already aware.

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A recent study suggests that pregnancy has an effect on women’s biological age as well. Women who have been pregnant showed more signs of biological ageing compared to women who had never been pregnant before, as per a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

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In other words, the more times a woman has been pregnant, the faster is her biological ageing.

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Pregnancy has long-term effects on woman’s body, shows study

Calen Ryan is an associate research scientist at the Columbia University Ageing Center at the Mailman School of Public Health. She along with her team studies data from more than 1700 people in the Philippines who were part of a survey. 

At the start of the study, in 2005, all the participants were of the age group 20-25. They all provided their blood samples and answered a few questions on their reproductive and sexual history, including questions like how many times they had been pregnant and whether or not those pregnancies resulted in live births. 

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All of the blood samples were analysed for several biological factors associated with ageing. As our cells age, they accumulate molecular imprints of genes that have been turned on or off, and these can serve as a proxy for how biologically older the cells are. These are called “epigenetic clocks” that make cells either older or younger than their actual chronological age.

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Ryan and his team used six such epigenetic clocks, which assessed 19 different indicators. The study found that “women who had been pregnant at least once were biologically older than women of the same age who had not been pregnant.”

Further, the study found, that pregnancy led to anywhere from four months to more than a year of faster ageing, at a rate of about 3 per cent more per year than women who had never been pregnant.

Also, women with more than one pregnancy aged up to five months faster as compared to women with one or fewer pregnancies. 

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To ensure the results were accurate, the team also incorporated some other factors like- exposure to air pollution, smoking and socio-economic status, on ageing. The team then narrows down their research to the group with the same six epigenetic clocks on the men in the study. They found that the number of children the men fathered had no association with the pace of their biological ageing.

Speaking of the potential connection between pregnancy and ageing, Ryan said that as pregnancy takes a physical toll on the body, all “energy going toward reproductive function may draw away from maintenance of the body."

(With inputs from agencies)