Being a mother ‘speeds up the aging process’: Scientists discover that mothers are biologically up to 3 MONTHS older

Being a mother brings all kinds of stress and tension.

But a study suggests that having children not only makes women feel older, but can also increase their biological age.

Researchers have found that each pregnancy adds two to three months to a young woman’s physical aging process.

However, pregnancy appears to have no effect on men’s biological age.

Researchers from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health have calculated the biological ages of 1,735 young people in the Philippines by studying their “epigenetic clocks.”

This technique involves calculating the aging of blood and other tissues by monitoring changes in DNA.

Experts liken it to looking for barnacles that have attached themselves to the hull of a ship to slow it down.

Analyzes showed that each additional pregnancy during early adulthood accelerated the aging process by several months.

However, no difference was seen in men whose partners had been pregnant – suggesting that there is something specific about pregnancy or breastfeeding that accelerates the biological aging process.

Lead author Dr Calen Ryan said: ‘Epigenetic clocks have revolutionized the way we study biological aging across the whole life cycle and provide new opportunities to study how and when the long-term health costs of reproduction and other life events manifest.

‘Our findings suggest that pregnancy accelerates biological aging, and that these effects are visible in young, highly fertile women.

‘Our results are also the first to follow the same women over time, linking changes in each woman’s pregnancy rate to changes in her biological age.’

The results of the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), apply only to young women in late adolescence.

This period usually covers the ages between 18 and 24 years.

“Many of the reported pregnancies in our baseline survey occurred during late adolescence, when women are still growing,” said Dr. Ryan.

‘We still have a lot to learn about the role of pregnancy and other aspects of reproduction in the aging process.

‘We now also know to what extent accelerated epigenetic aging in these specific individuals will manifest itself as poor health or mortality decades later in life.’

He added: ‘Ultimately, I think our findings highlight the potential long-term effects of pregnancy on women’s health, and the importance of caring for new parents, especially young mothers.’

Recent research published in the journal Cell Metabolism has also shown that pregnancy increases a woman’s biological age.

However, the findings also indicated that childbirth reversed this – with chemical markers on the DNA returning to a previous state once the baby was born.