LATE MOTHERHOOD AND LONGEVITY

I came across press coverage of research carried out at Utah University which linked late motherhood (last child in 40s/50s, naturally conceived) to longevity: likewise the brothers of such mothers appear to live longer.  The conclusion being drawn is that this is most likely to be genetic factors rather than purely lifestyle.

Dear Professor Smith

I was fascinated recently to come across your research into the above.


I had my first child when I was 42; my second (having had a miscarriage in between) at 44 (there is 18 and a half months between those two children): I am now, unexpectedly, at 48, pregnant again - I had come off the pill as I assumed that I must be heading for the menopause.

I have a grandmother of 98 who is still more-or-less hale and hearty - she is registered blind and this year has developed some problems with her legs, but continues to live independently and to be mentally fit and as active as she can be.

My other grandmother died of dementia aged 93, having led a very sedentary lifestyle; and my maternal grandfather died at age 93 of Alzheimers but having had a relatively healthy lifestyle (daily dog-walking; lots of gardening; not over-weight).

So longevity genes seem to run in my family, for a start.

However I am intrigued by the potential link to fertility, and have found very little research on it as generally, it appears to me, people research infertility and how to address it, for obvious reasons. But what particularly intrigued me is that it just so happened that I'd read some books on medieval English history around the time I discovered I was pregnant, which made me look into the ages of English and British Queens when they had their last child who survived to adulthood. The 'answers' were interesting (I think!) but have made me want to delve into the subject further, for example what their medical and family/genetic histories were. So, at the risk of getting boring by listing them:

- Eleanor of Acquitaine (1122-1204) lived to age 80 and had her last (8th?) child, who became King John, at age 45

- Isabella of Angouleme had her final child, another Isabella, in 1234 at the age of either 45 or 46 (by her second husband)

- Eleanor of Castile had her 16th child, who was to become Edward II, at age 43

- Philippa of Hainault (1314 - 1369: died of dropsy) had her final son when she was 41 (she had 14 children of whom 'only' 3 died in infancy)

There is then a bit of a gap until Elizabeth Woodville (c.1437-1492) who had a girl in 1480 at age 43, again from a second marriage.

There is then a long gap until Queen Victoria, and of course because Prince Albert died it is difficult to predict how long she might have gone on having children. But what also interests me, as I am currently reading a biography of Mozart, is that Mozart was one of only 2 children born to his parents who survived infancy and he in turn only had one or two children who did so. Around a similar time in Britain, Queen Mary (as of William and Mary) had no children and her sister, later Queen, Anne had 17 pregnancies - the last at I think age 33 - of whom nearly all were stillbirths, miscarriages, or infant deaths other than one who survived to age 11 but had some cephalic disorder.

It has always been the general assumption that in medieval times people were less healthy and had worse medical knowledge and treatment than either in 'Georgian' times or nowadays: and yet the very brief facts above seem, to me, to indicate that actually people were more fertile in medieval times - and in fact living longer as Henry III, Edward I and Edward III I think all lived into their 60s - and Edward II was murdered, or who knows how long he might have lived? It would appear that in 'Georgian' times (excuse the British description), people were generally not so fertile and infant mortality was higher than back in the 1100s and 1200s.

To relate this to nowadays, with all the coverage and opinion bandied around about fertility dropping off generally and it being difficult to get pregnant after 35 and almost impossible after 45 (ha!), I wonder if we're really that much fitter and healthier than we were in medieval times? Obviously it's difficult to draw real conclusions when I've only looked at royalty/aristocracy in history.

Sorry to be so long-winded: but I'd be really interested to know whether your research has covered any of these issues in more detail. In addition (and there was a reference to this in some of the press coverage I saw), is it likely that if a woman conceive naturally in her late 40s, that she will go through the menopause later?

I look forward to hearing from you

Best wishes.

I will keep the blog posted if I get a reply.  But it looks as if I might be sticking around to annoy people for some time yet...!