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Scientists have discovered the genetic secret to a longer reproductive life in women. They have identified new genes that could one day predict the age at which a woman will begin menopause.
Many couples dream of the moment their baby is born. It can take years to achieve, and sometimes it cannot be done without science and innovation.
“I think there’s a lot of anxiety and stress involved,” said Dr Craig Sweet, reproductive endocrinologist.
He helps bring those moments to families around Fort Myers.
Dr Sweet said about one in six couples will have fertility issues. “It has been like this for decades and decades,” he said.
But he explained that the reason couples go to his practice has changed.
“They are worried about running out of time… between going to school and maybe starting a job and finding a partner, it takes time,” he said.
Time is not on a woman’s side.
A woman will have more eggs while she is still in her mother’s womb at 20 weeks than she will ever have in her life, that’s about six to seven million eggs. By the time she is born, it drops to around two million. At puberty, there are between 2 and 400,000 eggs. Each month after that she loses hundreds more until she stops producing hormones and has essentially zeroed her eggs, which is when menopause begins.
The average age is 51 but it can happen much earlier or later.
“We know that for about ten years before the onset of menopause, getting pregnant becomes very difficult,” said Dr. Sweet.
Today, British scientists have more knowledge than ever about the process of reproductive aging. They studied 200,000 women and found 290 genetic variants linked to the time of menopause.
“Now we have so many of these genetic variants that we can start using them to try to predict which women might go through menopause earlier than others. This is obviously very useful for women, especially now that women are slow to start their families, ”said Dr Anna Murray.
Dr Murray is Associate Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Exeter as the lead author of the study.
She explained that they had found two key genes, Chek1 and Chek2. When tested and handled in mice, those without Chek2 and above Chek1 had a longer reproductive lifespan.
“Having a slight variation in one of these genes means you haven’t destroyed that many [eggs]”said Dr Murray.
The same mice also responded strongly to in vitro fertilization procedures.
In addition, the study looked at women who naturally do not have an active Chek2 gene. On average, they saw a 3.5 year delay in menopause.
However, the idea of targeting Chek proteins to delay menopause is not ready to be tested in humans.
“Where I think this could be really helpful is in understanding the processes involved in producing more eggs or keeping them alive longer,” said Dr Murray.
This research could also help improve infertility therapies.
Doctors already use hormonal tests to get answers about a woman’s fertility. But aside from blood tests, Dr Sweet said they can be subjective.
A future genetic test to find these newly identified genes could objectively allow young women to know if they are at high risk of early menopause.
Dr Murray said that in theory they have the technology to do this type of test today.
“The variants that we tested are the same types of variants that are offered by genetic testing companies like 23andMe, those kinds of commercial companies. What we want to do and what we are working on is to try to make this test as good as possible. And we’re trying to think, should we add some other factors? For example, the age of a mother at menopause, ”said Dr. Murray.
There are also other factors in menopause, such as smoking and body weight.
Dr Murray said they think about 50 percent of the time of menopause is genetic.
Right now, they can only explain about 12 percent.
In a survey, Dr Murray found that women want to know what makes up that percentage.
“A woman told me, ‘There are two things that really worry me in my life: having a baby and climate change.’ So they brought it up to that level, ”she said.
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