Women “age” during pregnancy but “get younger” after childbirth

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According to a recent study published in the journal Cell Metabolism, pregnancy and motherhood have an effect on the biological age of women. Details.

With each birthday, our age inevitably increases. But this is not the case for our biological age, a mirror of our physical health, which fluctuates with life events. Among these influential experiences are the pregnancy and childbirth. This is according to research carried out by correspondence between researchers at the Yale School of Medicine, the University of California and the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, published on March 22 in the journal Cell Metabolism et relayed by The world . Their work highlights the impact of pregnancy on biological aging, and that of breastfeeding subsequently on rejuvenation.

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The researchers relied on a previous study from Massachusetts General Hospital (the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School) published in 2023. This research had already demonstrated that certain physiological stressors lead to molecular aging, including certain diseases or surgeries as well as pregnancy.

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Rejuvenation of 3 to 8 years

To support these results and determine whether pregnancy was associated with accelerated biological aging and whether these effects were reversed after childbirth, scientists conducted a prospective cohort study within the University of California’s Development, Health, and Disease Research Program. “The data was obtained from blood samples taken from 119 women in early, middle and late pregnancy, as well as from a fourth blood sample taken approximately three months after delivery from 68 of these women,” we learn in the preamble to the study.

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Results ? “Pregnancy is positively associated with biological aging,” say the scientists. Specifically, the biological age of pregnant women can increase from 0.7 years to 2.52 years. The research team was also able to observe the “pronounced reversal” of this age during the postpartum period. Their work actually shows a reduction of 3 to 8 years between pregnancy and after. That is 2 to 3 times more than the increase in age observed during pregnancy.

BMI and breastfeeding

The researchers identified maternal body mass index (BMI) and breastfeeding as two factors likely to influence these variations during pregnancy and during the post-partum. Three months after giving birth, women who had a BMI of 30 (moderate obesity) while pregnant had a biological age 0.7 to 1.4 years higher than pregnant women with a BMI of 23. Furthermore , “mothers having declared a breastfeeding exclusive had an average biological age of approximately 1 year less than mothers opting for a mixed diet or only based on formula milk for their infant.

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However, additional work will be necessary to “determine whether the reversal in maternal biological age observed three months after childbirth is maintained over time and whether these effects accumulate over successive pregnancies,” conclude the authors of the study.