Ovary-span is the new women’s longevity trend

If you walk in wellness circles – or honestly, even if you don’t – it’s likely you’ve heard the term longevity tossed about a fair bit. 

Broadly speaking, our growing fixation with longevity signals a shift in focus toward both healthspan and lifespan. Instead of simply trying to live longer or delay ageing, we are collectively working towards being more proactive about our long-term health with preventative medicine, integrating supplements specifically targeted at longevity, as well as tracking and biohacking our health.

Until recently, though, this global movement has focused almost wholly on men and men’s health – hardly surprising, given science has used the male body as the default for a long time. Throw in the fact female hormones are rarely considered when it comes longevity – on top of which biohacking demographics reflect these spaces are dominated by tech bros and male bodybuilders – and there hasn’t been much room for women – until now.

Enter: ovary-span – a trend that focuses on ovarian health and the longevity of it, and has moved the conversation beyond just talking about a woman’s reproductive years.

Fertility specialist Dr Devora Lieberman agrees that ovarian ageing can be indicative of so much more. “Ovarian ageing may be a marker for overall health because some of the same things that accelerate ovarian ageing also have systemic effects,” she tells Body+Soul. “These include things like: DNA damage accumulation and impaired DNA repair, oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, telomere shortening, cellular senescence and chronic low-grade inflammation.”

This shift in conversation is also refreshing given many women who may have had children or gone through the process of trying to conceive will have experienced being told they’re “geriatric” simply because they’re over the age of 35. “I hate the word geriatric in this context,” says Dr Lieberman. “Age 35 became significant when we started doing amniocentesis – it’s the age when the risk of miscarriage from the procedure equals the risk of having a baby with Down syndrome.” But for women, the conflation of the term geriatric with their overall health and sense of longevity has long been a point of frustration.

In recent years, there has been a growing market for AMH and fertility tests and things like ovarian rejuvenation or supplements aimed specifically at women’s health. But, according to Dr Lieberman, many of these are being oversold to women and few are genuinely useful. “AMH can give us a guesstimate of how many eggs a woman might expect in an IVF cycle,” she explains. “It is not a measure of egg quality or the ability to conceive naturally.”

“Ovarian rejuvenation – for example with an injection of platelet-rich plasma – has been pretty well debunked. And there is no evidence to support the use of supplements, apart from some studies that show a benefit of multivitamins for women over 60 and their cognitive health,” she adds.

In other words, the concept of ovary-span is genuinely valuable – but the marketplace that has sprung up around it is, for now, mostly noise.

While the conversation around ovary-span is promising, we still have a long way to go as longevity science for women specifically has been woefully underfunded until fairly recently. “The cynic in me would say this is due to misogyny,” says Dr Lieberman. “But I think what has shifted is that there is recognition now that there is a lot of money to be made in the women’s health space. Menopause, for example, is very hot right now and that market has more than doubled or even tripled in the last 20 years with accelerated growth over the last five.”

And that’s just the beginning. “Femtech – including digital health, software, devices and services – is estimated to be worth about $US30-35 billion and is projected to grow to $US100 billion by 2032,” Dr Lieberman says. .

There’s also a lot of promising research ahead in this field. One area researchers are watching closely is peptides, Dr Lieberman notes. “And there is increasing evidence of the anti-inflammatory effects of GLP-1 agonists,” she continues, “but I would also warn against the purchase of unregulated peptides as there have been reports of severe negative reactions.”

Until we have more concrete evidence up our sleeves, women should feel empowered that ovary-span is now part of the conversation and, importantly, that when we speak of our ovarian health, we’re not just limited to talking about our reproductive wellbeing.

As always, a holistic approach to our health, wellbeing and longevity is going to be the best approach. “Women of all ages should eat a well-balanced diet, lots of colourful vegetables, fish and white meat and few ultra-processed foods,” says Dr Lieberman. “A Mediterranean diet may be anti-inflammatory and more broadly, exercise and strength training remain key for heart, muscle and bone health.”

Pass the nuts, then.

Article originally published in Body and Soul