How many children a woman has — and when she has them — may impact how well she ages and how long she lives.

That’s the takeaway from a decades-long twin study following nearly 15,000 women.

Researchers tracked participants from a questionnaire completed in 1975 through the present day, examining how family size and pregnancy timing relate to aging and lifespan.

The results show women with two to three children tend to live the longest. But timing also matters.

Pregnancies between roughly ages 24 and 38 were linked to more favorable aging and longevity patterns.

On the other hand, women with more than four children showed shorter lifespans and signs of faster biological aging.

And somewhat unexpectedly, women with no children also aged more quickly, according to the researchers... possibly due to health or lifestyle factors the study couldn’t fully control for.

Blood tests that look for DNA changes were also used to calculate biological aging.

Those results echoed the mortality data: women with many children — or none — appeared biologically older than their calendar age.

The authors say these findings can’t prove cause and effect and should not guide individual decisions about having children.

Source: Nature Communications

Author Affiliations: Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland , Helsinki Institute of Life Science, University of Helsinki, Minerva Foundation
Institute for Medical Research, Gerontology Research Center, University of Jyväskylä, Institute of Biotechnology.

Having This Many Children May Lead to Faster Biological Aging

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