But now, it isn’t only Suh in his Columbia lab that is trying to push back menopause—or even end it entirely. Studies around the world are focused on stopping the ovaries from aging. If successful, it could rewrite what it means to grow older. But with the excitement comes unease. Is this about giving people healthier lives—or about refusing to let them age at all?

Biologically, menopause is the direct result of ovarian aging. The ovaries age more rapidly than other organs. Women are born with a finite number of eggs—around one to two million at birth—which steadily decline throughout life. By puberty, only about 300 000 remain, and by the mid-thirties, the ovarian reserve declines more rapidly. As the pool of viable eggs dwindles and estrogen production falls, the body eventually reaches the point where ovulation stops altogether—marking the onset of menopause.

The majority of mammals don’t go through menopause—only humans, and a few toothed whales, including orcas and narwhals. There are several theories as to why humans evolved this way. Some theories argue that menopause protects people from dangerous late-age pregnancies, which are more risky for both parent and child.

Another theory, named the “grandmother hypothesis,” suggests that menopause evolved so that older women would be freed up to help raise grandchildren, thereby increasing their survival chances.

But more simply, menopause may just be an accident of longer lifespans. For much of human history, women rarely lived decades beyond their childbearing years. Nowadays, around a third of women’s life spans are spent postmenopausal.

Of course, this isn’t inherently a problem—in fact, no longer being able to reproduce can be a blessing. Many people are thrilled to finally ditch tampons, pads, PMS, menstrual cramps, and pregnancy scares.

However, menopause also has negative health outcomes for the body. It raises the long-term risks of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and other chronic illnesses. This is because the amount of estrogen in the body plummets, and estrogen appears to be central to protecting bones, keeping cardiac cells healthy, and even acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain.

As Renee Wegrzyn, director of the US agency behind former First Lady Jill Biden’s new women’s health initiative, put it: “The ovaries are the only organ in humans that we just accept will fail one day. It’s actually kind of wild that we all just accept that.”

As researchers point out, the consequences of ovarian decline affect the quality of life they experience in later decades.

“Women live longer than men, but they usually do so in a much more frail state,” Bérénice Benayoun, who studies sex differences in aging at the University of Southern California, told Vox. “For most women, delaying menopause will be nothing short of a health miracle.”

There’s also the question of reproductive freedom. If menopause could be delayed, women might have children later without relying on IVF or egg freezing. That could ease the socioeconomic pressure to have children within a narrow window that often collides with career-building years.

Until recently, menopause was considered inevitable. Now, multiple experimental approaches are moving from theory to clinical trials.

In London, the company ProFam already offers what looks like a science–fiction service: a surgeon removes a sliver of healthy ovarian tissue, freezes it for years, then reimplants it when menopause approaches. The tissue contains thousands of primordial follicles, essentially younger eggs that can reboot hormone production.

Originally developed for young cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, the procedure is now marketed as a way to delay menopause by a decade or more. Kutluk Oktay, the Yale reproductive surgeon who pioneered the method, described it as historic in a press release in 2024: “For the first time in medical history, we have the ability to potentially delay or eliminate menopause.”

Back at Columbia, Yousin Suh and Zev Williams are also seeing remarkable results using ramamycin. “In a way, our results are too good to be true,” Suh told Vox. “Except, because rapamycin is so well studied, we know they are true.”

Early data suggest it may slow ovarian aging by 20 percent. Participants have reported brighter moods, better memory, and even healthier-looking skin.

Rapamycin works by inhibiting a protein complex called mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin), which is a central regulator of cell metabolism, growth, and survival. If successful, rapamycin could become the first widely available drug to extend ovarian life.

Other methods are under investigation too. The startup Gameto is testing whether stem cell–derived ovarian support cells could rejuvenate aging ovaries. Oviva Therapeutics is experimenting with boosting anti-Müllerian hormone levels, which regulate egg maturation, to preserve egg reserves. Meanwhile, biotech firm Celmatix is developing drugs that may slow egg depletion, and researchers are exploring senolytics—drugs that clear out old, damaged cells—as a way to keep ovarian tissue younger for longer.

Whether or not these experimental treatments succeed, the debate over menopause is already reshaping medicine. The ovaries are increasingly being studied as a model of accelerated aging. If scientists can understand why they fail decades before other organs do, it could unlock clues to slowing aging across the entire body—benefiting men and women alike.

At the same time, there is growing concern about the ethical and social dimensions of delaying menopause.

While delaying menopause can yield some health benefits, it also carries risks. Longer estrogen exposure may slightly increase the risk of breast and endometrial cancers. Balancing the potential for reduced dementia or osteoporosis against possible new risks is not simple.

Then there’s the specter of late-age pregnancy. The maternal mortality rate is three to four times higher in women over forty compared to those under twenty-nine. This figure would likely be even higher if women were having children into their fifties and sixties.

Others worry that striving to eradicate menopause plays into a troubling narrative: that women are only valuable while they’re fertile. In the US, Vice President JD Vance has spoken dismissively about “the purpose of the postmenopausal female.”

Against that backdrop, research to “cure” menopause can feel less like empowerment and more like reducing women once again to baby machines.

Our current trajectory suggests a future that is less science fiction and more Handmaid’s Tale.