Ovarian Aging Emerges as a Central Driver of Women's Health Span

Scientists have long focused on the ovary's reproductive role, but mounting evidence positions the organ as central to a woman's health span—the years she spends in good health overall. "Pretty much every organ system you can think of is touched by the ovaries," says Francesca Duncan, a reproductive biologist at Northwestern University查看公司主页 and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging查看公司主页. "For women, you absolutely cannot have a conversation about health span unless you're also talking about the ovaries because they are so central to healthy longevity."

Duncan is among a handful of pioneering scientists who have uncovered how important the ovaries are to health, and who are now translating that knowledge into strategies to help not just women, but everyone, live longer and healthier lives.

The Ovary as a Window into Systemic Aging

One of Duncan's major findings is that ovaries become increasingly inflamed, fibrotic—or scarred—and stiff over time. This stiffness affects egg quality and can hinder egg release, and could increase risks of diseases including ovarian cancer (搜索)搜索该疾病. Other organs, including the heart, lungs and liver, also become more fibrotic over time, and Duncan argues the ovary could offer clues into aging across the body. "This is one of the reasons why I think studying the ovary is important. By comparing the ovary to these other organ systems, we could potentially really understand what's happening and find shared mechanisms," she says.

In April 2026, Duncan published a study showing that post-menopausal ovaries—previously assumed to, as she put it, "just sit there and not do anything"—become more scarred and inflamed over time. Duncan says she was "totally stunned" by this discovery and notes it is possible that post-menopausal ovaries send out inflammatory signals that could be damaging to health. "I think this is a big frontier," she says. "It highlights just how much we don't know."

A Biomarker for Ovarian Aging and Fertility

Duncan's lab is currently developing an ultrasound test to measure ovarian stiffness that she says could be used as a biomarker of aging and ovarian health, and also to predict outcomes of fertility treatments like in-vitro fertilization.

Earlier in her career, Duncan found that proteins known as cohesins diminish with age, leading to chromosomal instability and other problems. That discovery has already been built on elsewhere.

Translating Findings into Therapies

Researchers are already exploring therapies based on Duncan's findings. Building on her research, a group in China published a paper in February 2026 showing that an existing anti-fibrotic drug (搜索)搜索该药品 could boost ovary function in mice and possibly people too. The drug appeared to restore fertility in women with primary ovarian insufficiency (搜索)搜索该疾病, a condition in which the ovaries stop working normally before age 40.

Separately, in Germany, researchers are pursuing direct cohesin (搜索)搜索该靶点-replenishment therapies as a way to enhance fertility.

A Field Comes Around

Though much remains unknown about the ovary's link to health span, Duncan says the field of aging research has finally embraced the idea. She recalls attending a program for early-career scientists in 2013 on the biology of aging and feeling "totally like the oddball out." "We had to go around the room and say what we worked on. I said I was studying the ovary, and everyone was like, 'That's nice. That's not aging.' And that was really the attitude for many years," she says. "But not anymore."