The age at which women go through menopause is critical for fertility and impacts healthy aging in women, but reproductive ageing has been difficult for scientists to study and insights into the underlying biology are limited. Now, scientists have identified nearly 300 gene variations that influence reproductive lifespan in women. Additionally, in mice, they have successfully manipulated several key genes associated with these variants to extend their reproductive lifespan. The scientists’ findings, published online on August 4, 2021 in Nature, substantially increase our knowledge of the reproductive aging process, as well as providing ways to improve the prediction of which women might reach menopause earlier than others. The article is titled “Genetic Insights into Biological Mechanisms Governing Human Ovarian Ageing.”