As more and more women opt to have children beyond the age of 35, there is a concern about how their bodies will react to late pregnancies. But new research indicates that women who naturally have children in later stages of their lives tend to live longer, and the genes that allow for late reproduction also influence longevity. 
 
 The study was conducted by Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and published in the journal Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society. While getting pregnant after the age of 35 has been associated with risks of developing multiple pregnancies, gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, genetic abnormalities in the offspring, etc., according to the study, women who had children after they turned 33 have a greater chance of living longer than women who have children before they turn 30. 
 
 "Of course this does not mean women should wait to have children at older ages in order to improve their own chances of living longer," explained corresponding author, Dr. Thomas Perls. "The age at last childbirth can be a rate of aging indicator. The natural ability to have a child at an older age likely indicates that a woman's reproductive system is aging slowly, and therefore so is the rest of her body." 
 
 Women who are capable of reproducing after 33 years of age will also live longer. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock 
 
 The study was based on analysis of data from the Long Life Family Study (LLFS) — a biopsychosocial and genetic study of 551 families with many members having exceptionally long lives. After assessing the age at which 462 women had their last child and their current age, the researchers concluded that women who had their last child after the age of 33 years had twice the odds of living to 95 years or older compared with women who had their last child by age 29. 
 
 These findings also indicate that women may be passing on longevity genes that slow down the age-related changes that take place in the cells of our body, making us live longer. 
 
 "If a woman has those variants, she is able to reproduce and bear children for a longer period of time, increasing her chances of passing down those genes to the next generation," said Perls, the director of the New England Centenarian Study (NECS), a principal investigator of the LLFS and a professor of medicine at BUSM. "This possibility may be a clue as to why 85 percent of women live to 100 or more years while only 15 percent of men do." 
 
 These results corroborate with previous findings, which state that women who have a child in their forties were four times more likely to live to 100 than women who had their last child at a younger age. These studies link late menopause to the late onset of age related diseases such as Alzheimer's, heart disease, and stroke, hence implying that these women live longer. 
 
 These findings have significant implications in the study of delayed aging and age-related diseases, say the researchers. The study also leads us to speculate if extending the child-bearing period in women is an evolutionary process to extend the human life span. 
 
 Source: Perls TT, Sun F, Sebastiani P et al. Extended maternal age at birth of last child and women's longevity in the Long Life Family Study. Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society. 2014. 

 Women who had their last baby after they turned 33-years-old were two times more likely to reach 95-years-old in comparison to women who had their last child at the age of 29. (Photo : Flickr/.v1ctor Casale) 
 
 According to a new study, how fertile a woman is can indicate her lifespan. The researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) discovered that women who can get pregnant naturally and give birth successfully tend to live longer than women who are not as capable of having children. The team reasoned that these women could carry genetic variants that would explain their fertility and longevity. 
 
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 In this study, the researchers analyzed data gathered from the Long Life Family Study (LLFS), which collected information on 551 families who had members that lived long lives. The team looked at 462 female participants. They focused on when the women had their last baby and how long they lived. 
 
 The researchers discovered that women who had their last baby after they turned 33-years-old were two times more likely to reach 95-years-old in comparison to women who had their last child at the age of 29. In general, the researchers calculated that women who had a child after the age of 33 had a greater chance of living longer than women who had their last child before turning 30. 
 
 "Of course this does not mean women should wait to have children at older ages in order to improve their own chances of living longer," explained corresponding author Thomas Perls, MD, MPH according to the press release. "The age at last childbirth can be a rate of aging indicator. The natural ability to have a child at an older age likely indicates that a woman's reproductive system is aging slowly, and therefore so is the rest of her body." 
 
 Although the researchers did not determine why this particular group of women lives longer, they reasoned that these women could have genetic variants that slow down their aging and prolong their lives by reducing the risk of age-related genes. The researchers stated that if women did carry these variants, it would explain why women live a lot longer than men. 
 
 "If a woman has those variants, she is able to reproduce and bear children for a longer period of time, increasing her chances of passing down those genes to the next generation," said Perls, the director of the New England Centenarian Study (NECS), a principal investigator of the LLFS and a professor of medicine at BUSM. "This possibility may be a clue as to why 85 percent of women live to 100 or more years while only 15 percent of men do." 
 
 The study was published in Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society. 

 Want to live longer? If you’re a woman, have a child in your mid-30s or beyond. Or, well, have a body that’s capable of doing so. 
 
 That’s the finding of a new study conducted by aging researchers at Boston University, Boston Medical Center, and elsewhere. It compared 311 women in the Long Life Family Study who lived to at least 95 years of age with 151 counterparts who died at younger ages and found that those who gave birth past the age of 33 had twice the odds of living to 95 years or older compared with the control group who had their last child by age 29. 
 
 Given that I gave birth to my third and youngest child at age 29, I was not happy to hear this news. Should I have tried for another to increase my odds of living longer? (I ask this facetiously since I know the added stress of having a fourth would have shortened my lifespan.) 
 
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 Longevity researcher Dr. Thomas Perls, co-author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Menopause, agrees that the study yields no practical advice for women. 
 
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 “Women shouldn’t delay child-bearing based on this study,” Perls said in an interview. But, he added, that the finding should give pause to those who criticize women who get pregnant naturally during middle-age. “Critics say they’ll be too old to care for their teens or help raise their grand-children, but I would wager that these women are aging exceptionally well.” 
 
 He pointed to actress Halle Berry who had a surprise pregnancy at age 46. “Look how incredibly young she looks.” 
 
 His previous research found that women at the extreme end of the child-bearing spectrum — who are able to give birth after age 40 — were four times as likely to live to 100 as those who had children at younger ages. 
 
 But Halle Berry is the exception, not the norm; fertility declines with age, and many women need to turn to assisted reproductive technologies like IVF to get pregnant in their late 30s or early 40s. 
 
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 Longevity benefits don’t extend to those who get pregnant with such methods, Perls said. 
 
 Future research will investigate whether going through natural menopause at an older age is also a marker for slower aging. 
 
 “That will more directly get to answers we’re looking for, which is finding genetic variants that these women all have in common to explain why they age more slowly,” Perls said. “If we can better understand the biological pathways that these genes govern, we might find drugs that do the same things as the genes.” 
 
 Deborah Kotz can be reached at dkotz@globe.com . Follow her on Twitter @debkotz2
– Women who are able to get pregnant naturally and give birth in their mid-30s and after tend to live longer than other women, a new study suggests. Specifically, Boston researchers found that women who gave birth after age 33 were twice as likely to live to 95 than women who were done having kids at 29, reports Medical Daily. So what kind of effect should this have on a young couple's family planning? Not much, the co-author of the study in the journal Menopause tells the Boston Globe. “Women shouldn’t delay child-bearing based on this study,” says Thomas Perls. But he hopes it will get people to stop second-guessing women who become pregnant in middle age. "Critics say they’ll be too old to care for their teens or help raise their grandchildren," says Perls, "but I would wager that these women are aging exceptionally well.” One caveat: The extra longevity doesn't apply to women who use IVF or other technologies to get pregnant. So what's going on? Researchers think that women who are able to get pregnant and conceive at older ages have "genetic variants" that slow down their own aging, reports Counsel & Heal. What's more, by reproducing longer, they have a better chance of passing along those genes. "This possibility may be a clue as to why" many more women than men live to hit the century mark, says Perls. (Click to read about a woman who gave birth via IVF using her own 46-year-old egg.)