For decades, women’s health experts have operated under the assumption that ovaries become dormant after menopause. But recent studies suggest that’s simply not true, an Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist says.
“Ovaries remain biologically active once their reproductive job is finished,” said Michael Stout, Ph.D., whose lab studies female reproductive aging. “They may continue to affect a woman’s health for the rest of her life.”
Stout and a longtime collaborator, Francesca Duncan, Ph.D., made their case in an article published this month in the prestigious journal Science. The article stemmed from a workshop held by the National Institute on Aging.
“The postmenopausal ovary has been referred to as a wrinkled and shriveled husk,” said Duncan, a professor at Northwestern University’s medical school. “Women commonly spend a third of their lives after menopause, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the ovary does not become defunct. We need more research, and we must change the language surrounding this organ to match modern scientific discoveries.”
Today, postmenopausal years comprise more of most women’s lives than ever before. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American women who reached menopause in 1925 could expect to live another 20-25 years. Over the past century, science and improved health care have added a decade to that expected lifespan.
The implications of recent ovarian research aren’t clear, but Stout said discoveries increasingly link postmenopausal ovaries to inflammation, even in the absence of infection.
Therefore, he said, aging ovaries might become vehicles for inflammation to form and then travel to other parts of the body. This type of chronic, low-level inflammation has been linked to conditions including cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, muscle loss and metabolic disorders.
Stout has played a key role in developing scientists’ understanding of ovarian aging, helping to identify specific types of immune cells that change as ovaries age.
Recent studies have led some scientists to ask whether women should remove their ovaries after menopause to improve overall health. “We know that removing ovaries before menopause increases the risk of chronic disease,” Stout said, “but removing them after menopause has remained largely untested.”
So, that question – like many others in the field – remains an open one, Stout said. “There’s so much more to learn about the postmenopausal ovary.”
