For some women being a mother is one of life’s greatest joys – that is, once their child gets past the ‘terrible twos’, of course.
But while it’s a job that brings great joy, it can also be extremely tiring worrying about where and what your offspring are doing at any given time.
So it may come as no surprise that researchers at George Mason University in the USA have found that motherhood is ageing women faster than smoking or even being overweight.
Researchers at George Mason University in the USA have deduced that motherhood is ageing women faster than smoking or even being overweight (stock image)
The group of scientists looked at 2,000 women aged between 20 and 44 and found that the shortening of telomeres in mothers was comparable to women without children who were 11 years older, essentialkids.com.au reports.
A telomere is the part of our chromosomes that is associated with age and longevity.
As we get older our telomeres naturally get shorter but this new research equates being a parent with speeding up that process.
And the bad news doesn’t stop there.
The group of scientists looked at 2,000 women aged between 20 and 44 for their research (stock image)
The more children you have the shorter your telomeres will be, according to the study.
‘We were surprised to find such a striking result,’ Anna Pollack, one of the study’s researchers, said.
‘We found that women who had five or more children had even shorter telomeres compared to those who had none, and relatively shorter to those who had one, two, three, or four, even.’
Other well-known ways of shortening your life span include sitting for more than a few hours at a time each day, long commutes to and from work, failing to orgasm and lack of sleep.
Mainly because many of these elements increase the amount of stress on the body and long-term stress wears out our organs and brain (stock image)
Mainly because many of these elements increase the amount of stress on the body and long-term stress wears out our organs and brain.
But not all hope is lost, with women who give birth in their 30s twice as likely to reach a ripe old age.
Columbia University discovered women who had their last child after the age of 33 had double the chances of being in the top five per cent of long life compared to women whose last birth was at 29.