Key points from article :
Number of times a person gives birth may affect the body's physical ageing process.
Data on 4418 participants included information about their reproductive health.
People with few births - or too many - have aged quicker than those who had given birth 3 or 4 times.
These effects were seen only after menopause.
Hormones buffer the negative effects of pregnancy and reproduction on ageing.
But once these are gone( in menopause), the effects can show.
"Pregnancy & birth contribute to dysregulation of physiological systems that may affect ageing once a person is post-menopause"
"We think there's something going on, some sort of trade-off, between aging and reproduction," - Talia Shirazi, PhD and lead author.
Research by Penn State University published in Scientific Reports.
