Looking to Nature for Strategies to Understand Menopause, and Possibly Even Control It

Buck scientist asks questions about evolution in biomedically relevant ways with a grant from the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity & Equality

Women have no choice but to accept the cards they have been dealt when it comes to the age they undergo menopause. Or do they? Buck Senior Scientist Deena Emera, PhD, wants to learn how animals experience menopause or, more frequently, don’t. She aims to steal some of their tricks to help enable women to  gain some control of their reproductive aging.

“My hope long term is to expand a woman’s choices about when she has children and when she goes through menopause,” says Emera.

Emera’s background in evolutionary biology and female reproductive science makes her perfectly positioned to answer questions about how different species vary in the way their reproductive systems age. Her perspective is to explore how their ovaries age at the genetic and molecular levels to spark innovations.

“I am trying to use what we see in nature as a way to improve human health,” says Emera, who is Writer in Residence at the Buck and recently published a book, A Brief History of the Female Body.

From an evolutionary perspective menopause doesn’t make sense, Emera says. “Why would natural selection have an organism live for so much longer than they are able to reproduce?” she wonders.

Menopause occurs when the ovaries stop releasing eggs and the body ceases to produce hormones, notably estrogen. While diminished hormones may have a few health benefits, after menopause a woman has an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and osteoporosis. “We as humans really are the anomaly,” she says, noting that only human females, along with a few types of whales, go through menopause.

“I am truly fascinated by how other female animals have dealt with this issue that women have to deal with.”

Emera was just awarded a two-year, $200,000 pilot award from the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity & Equality (GCRLE) at the Buck to explore the genetic basis of menopause and the absence l of menopause in animals with extraordinarily long lifespans. The GCRLE, made possible by the Bia-Echo Foundation, is dedicated to supporting breakthrough research on reproductive aging.

While many scientists are investigating the biological causes of accelerated reproductive aging in women, Emera’s project uses the novel approach of revealing strategies already used in nature for reproductive longevity. Emera suspects that there are genetic mechanisms in play, such as enhanced DNA repair, which could be the key to their reproductive longevity (and also potentially the cancer resistance these long-lived mammals have).

Her first step is to compare the  sequenced genomes of a variety of animals to detect “signatures of selection.” For example, specific genes that are active in the ovaries or the brain which are involved in regulating reproductive cyclescan go through rounds of natural selection. This means that they function a little bit differently in a species of interest

It’s a challenge at the genetic level to figure out how long-lived mammals experience menopause, mainly because there aren’t very many examples. To do so, Emera will also compare gene expression in human ovaries with that from animals that do and do not experience menopause.

With the in-depth database comparisons, plus the direct analysis of ovarian tissue from various species, Emera hopes to uncover natural solutions to reproductive longevity,

“I want to learn whether there are genes, or changes in gene expression, that have allowed these majestic marine mammals to avoid menopause,” she says. “I would be so happy if I could make headway there.”

Once the strategies are better understood, it may be possible to mimic them with therapies or interventions that could profoundly impact female fertility, overall health, and quality of life.

“I’m all about choices, and I think choices for women in midlife are limited right now,” she says. Hormone replacement therapy, for example, is far from ideal, with sometimes bothersome side effects and, for some women, an increased risk of blood clots, stroke and some cancers.

“There are better options that we have yet to discover,” she says. “I am looking to nature to identify them.”