The Ovary Is Surprisingly Active After Menopause. Scientists Are Trying to Figure Out Why

“I assumed it was just sitting there inert,” says Duncan, a reproductive biologist at Northwestern University, who was only looking at postmenopausal ovaries as part of a project to map a cellular aging process called senescence throughout the body.

Instead, Duncan found that aged ovaries were anything but stagnant. When looking at the protein composition of ovaries of postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 75 years old, her team found that the molecular signatures differed significantly across the decades. The oldest ovary looked nothing like a 60- or 70-year-old organ at the molecular level. She was shocked. “Clearly something is still happening,” says Duncan.

The question is: what?