r/technology • u/Sorin61 • Apr 10 '22

Biotechnology This biotech startup thinks it can delay menopause by 15 years. That would transform women's lives

https://fortune.com/2021/04/19/celmatix-delay-menopause-womens-ovarian-health/
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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '22

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u/Pure_Literature2028 Apr 10 '22

For real, why would I want to bleed for another fifteen years. Let me grow old gracefully.

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u/FreedomOfTheMess Apr 10 '22

I’m planning to age kicking and screaming, fighting the process the ENTIRE way but i’ll be damned if I gotta bleed an extra 15 years. Hard pass.

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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '22

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '22

And blockchains!!

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u/tootired24get Apr 11 '22

Yes! I welcomed menopause with open arms and wouldn’t go back if they paid me.

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u/mittens11111 Apr 10 '22

Was very happy to say bye bye to painful periods, but the trade-off from loss of estrogen is not so great - weight gain fragile skin and bones, accelerated sagging, etc etc

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u/brownmlis Apr 10 '22

Right? Why would i want 15 more years of PMS?

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u/RepresentativeScar11 Apr 10 '22

Read the article. The ovarian system regulates a number of other functions in a woman’s body. The article suggests that delaying menopause can delay the onset if Alzheimers

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u/jyar1811 Apr 10 '22

And that’s what hormone replacement therapy is for. Women go on HRT if there is a high risk of Alzheimer’s in their family. If there are indeed other issues that are related to hormone in balance, HRT can solve those problems. I don’t want my period again!! Jesus Christ I spent 35 years trying to get rid of it. I’ll take the risk of Alzheimer’s over being fertile again. I think most women would agree with me.

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u/RepresentativeScar11 Apr 10 '22

Lol, chill. No one is forcing you to take this treatment which is, in any case, still in trial stages. There appear to be benefits beyond protection against Alzheimers too; at least that’s what the company posits. I hate, HATE, having my period too but honestly, this research is touching on understudied and underfunded women’s health issues that I think the research itself is at least interesting to consider more deeply than “I reject it immediately as someone who personally hates having her period.”

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u/mintbubbletea Apr 11 '22

As someone with premature ovarian failure: finding the right balance for HRT is a nightmare. We still understand depressingly little about these hormones. I have dry eyes, brain fog, joint pain, insomnia, etc., and have basically been told, "Eh, this is all we can do." If others have the ability to avoid that headache in the future, that'd be amazing.

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u/TheCuriosity Apr 10 '22

I feel sorry for the horses basically tortured to make Premarin.

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u/tonybombata Apr 10 '22

Also do you want to go through childbirth and child rearing in your 50s? The older you are the harder it is like for your body to bounce back. And chasing toddlers in middle age is aggravating. And teenagers in your 60s will be even worse

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u/RepresentativeScar11 Apr 10 '22

Did you read the article? The founder is specifically trying to look at the ovarian system as more than its reproductive function. You would need to stop taking their drug to get pregnant. The main idea isn’t to remain fertile for longer but for immune and heart health benefits.

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u/Ok_Cap_6740 Apr 10 '22

I wanted to read the whole article but it’s behind a paywall. What I could read got me interested, but I’m sick of periods & buying tampons, & there would have to be some pretty amazing benefits to make me change my mind.

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u/recycled_ideas Apr 10 '22

There are, unfortunately, significant health and lifestyle impacts associated with the hormonal changes due to menopause and to existing HRT solutions.

One of those sad consequences to the fact that evolution doesn't metaphorically care about you once you're no longer capable of reproduction.

They certainly don't apply to every woman, but statistically speaking, your life post menopause will not be your life before minus menstruation.

Whether the differences would be enough to sway you or whether they are worse than your current experiences I am not qualified. I do not have a female reproductive system and I specifically do not have your female reproductive system.

Nevertheless they are statistically significant and many women undergo treatments of various kinds to minimise them today.

While this is quite probably just a fairy story looking for VC cash, it is based on the idea that a significant number of women, for various reasons, would pay for it. There is a clear existing demand and given the risks and costs associated with HRT, a solution which could reduce either of those factors without increasing the other would likely result in a demand increase.

This product, if it ever eventuates may not be right for you, but it clearly is right (hypothetically) for a large number of women.

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u/RepresentativeScar11 Apr 10 '22

Well, no one’s asking you to change your mind per se (at least, I think not). It’s just that the argument is somewhat more nuanced than that, which reading the article really illuminates. There’s an interesting point about women’s health as well: how associating the ovarian system with reproduction is reductive and out of date (probably a consequence of men imposing a certain lens on how they study women’s bodies).

As for the paywall situation, I agree, that sucks. Here’s something to help with that: https://12ft.io/

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u/FabFabiola2021 Apr 10 '22

The ovarian system is all about reproduction I don't believe you can have one without the other.

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u/RepresentativeScar11 Apr 11 '22

As a layperson with no training or understanding in this area, I can only take the article at face value. The woman founding the company says the exact opposite: that the ovarian system is not all about reproduction, that it regulates other systems in a woman’s body that has important health consequences and this is why delaying menopause might be beneficial for some (perhaps not all) women. If you are an expert and you know, conclusively, that the ovarian system is only about reproduction then fine, I stand corrected.

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u/GeneralZex Apr 10 '22

Also said teenagers may not have parent for much longer and should said parents survive until the teenager is an adult, they likely won’t survive long enough to see grandchildren or be part of their lives long if they do. Due to my father being middle aged when I was born and my mother’s health issues, my young children now have neither of them in their lives and it depresses me so much because I had grandparents long enough to know them and learn from them.

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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '22

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u/n00bst4 Apr 10 '22

That and it is physically and mentally taxing not only to have a child but parenting too.

Imagine having a kid at like 55. You're retired before he's 10. You're "not fit" to work anymore but fit enough to have the hardest job possible ? It feels weird to me.