This huge longevity breakthrough has a surprising source
Key Takeaways
Industry Buzz
“Interventions could be made prior to menopause that could enhance health and longevity.” — Sara Shihab, MD, board-certified woman’s health internist specializing in sexual health and menopause
In 2013, researcher David Pepin made a surprising observation as a postdoc at Massachusetts General Hospital: While studying the potential of anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) to treat ovarian cancer, he found that the hormone appeared to extend ovarian longevity in mice.[]
Dr. Pepin’s research suggested that “AMH might be able to slow the aging of the reproductive system, extending the window of fertility and staving off menopause,” according to an article from Bloomberg Businessweek.[]
Studying menopause may provide us with a significantly better understanding of longevity. Researchers are increasingly focused on the underlying biological changes associated with menopause in order to better understand how to promote healthy aging.
“Scientists and startups are racing to turn these revelations into therapies that could one day advance treatment for menopause and infertility and perhaps eventually intervene in the process of aging itself,” per Bloomberg.[]
Here's how further research into the AMH-menopause link could produce significant insights into how to better support longevity and healthy aging among all patients.
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Our current understanding of AMH can already provide helpful information to support patients approaching menopause.
As Sara Shihab, MD, a board-certified woman’s health internist specializing in sexual health and menopause at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, AZ, notes, “Researchers say that the AMH level starts to become low or undetectable 5 years before menopause, making it a potential biomarker to predict the onset of menopause in women.”
This information could help providers counsel their patients as they prepare for a transition to menopause. “This could provide an opportunity where some interventions could be made prior to menopause that could enhance health and longevity," Dr. Shihab tells MDLinx.
[Related: biomarker
Hormone therapy and longevity
Additional research points to a connection between hormone therapy and longevity, Dr. Shihab notes. A 2024 study published in JAMA Network Open found that “postmenopausal women with historical HT [hormone therapy] use were biologically younger than those not receiving HT.”[] These results suggest that HT could support healthy aging.
Long-term benefits of emerging menopause therapies “can be numerous for low-risk individuals,” says Jacquelyn Saengmany, a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner at Mercyhealth in Woodstock, IL. These can range from cardiovascular protection to bone health to metabolic benefits, she explains.
What could further research tell us?
Menopause experts are hopeful for what further research in menopause and healthy aging could reveal. “Ongoing inclusive studies testing the safety and efficacy of therapies for women of different ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds are the most promising,” says Saengmany.
Dr. Shihab adds that research could look at the synergistic benefits of menopausal hormone therapy with other modalities such as metformin. According to Harvard Health, metformin “may actually slow aging and increase life expectancy.” []
Supporting patients
As research is ongoing, communicating with patients is the key to supporting them through this life transition.
Providers should “discuss hormone therapy risks and benefits and various body changes that occur during menopause with their patients. We can reduce the stigma through supporting women during this transition, validating their concerns, and providing appropriate help,” Dr. Shihab says.