In Beijing, China, a biologist at the State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology is working on extending women’s fertility.
Hongmei Wang explains the mechanism of how she envisions achieving this: women are born with a limited supply of eggs, and menopause occurs precisely after this supply is depleted. If women ovulate less frequently, they might consume their eggs more slowly. The researcher’s team is testing this hypothesis on animals. As she told the publication El País, “delaying menstruation or prolonging reproductive life may be technically feasible.” Her lab is also working on methods using stem cells to restore ovarian function.
The idea of extending reproductive age emerged against the reality that today, more women have begun delaying pregnancy. Furthermore, according to UN projections, if current trends continue, China’s population could shrink by half by 2100. The United Nations Population Fund has conducted studies regarding the demographic situation in Europe, and in this case too, it points to a crisis. A safe way to slow down the biological reproductive clock could give women more time to make decisions about when to have children.
It should be noted that the ongoing research is at a fairly early stage, experiments are currently being conducted on animals, and this approach cannot yet be a treatment method because it comes with a major trade-off.
In her conversation with the publication, Wang herself explains the potential complications that accompany her approach. According to her, “If we inhibit ovulation, we can preserve the egg, but at the same time, we inhibit the production of estrogen”—a hormone that protects the bones, heart, and brain. She also notes that whether women themselves want to postpone fertility at the cost of these trade-offs is a separate issue to be discussed; however, she adds that if researchers find a way to avoid the side effects, it will open entirely new paths in women’s reproductive medicine.
Source: elpais.com
