Societal Pressures and Gendered Aging: How Expectations Around Pregnancy Contribute to Women’s Increased Development of Alzheimer’s Disease

Diabetes, which is the impairment of glucose metabolism, plays a vital role in developing AD because its reduced regulation causes neuronal death (Role of Glucose Metabolism in Alzheimer’s Disease, 2024). This causes a reduced volume of the brain that further inhibits sleep and induces a cyclic pattern of glucose being unregulated.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that slowly deteriorates memory and cognition, eventually leading to the inability to carry out day-to-day tasks (“Alzheimer’s Disease Fact Sheet,” 2023). AD is more prevalent in women, but why? Harvard studies have shown that it is due to women aging at a higher rate than men (Budson, 2022). Due to cultural and societal expectations, women have been pressured to establish families and become mothers (Güner and Öztürk, 2023b). Giving birth accelerates aging, which increases the probability of women developing AD (“Does Pregnancy Accelerate Aging? Yale Findings Suggest It Does – at First,” 2024). The social and cultural pressure on women to have more children can in fact cause long-term detrimental effects on women as it increases their rate of aging.

Unwanted pregnancies can create a mental toll for women, inducing stress and causing accelerated aging. With the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, 40% of women have been forced to carry out unintended pregnancies, which has increased the rate of postpartum aging significantly (Berg and Woods, 2023). Aging increases amongst women after childbirth due to the increased release of hormones, leading to mental deterioration (Faisal-Cury et al., 2021). This increased rate of aging amongst women leads to memory loss and the development of AD.

With sleep fragmentation and reduced brain volume, Tau and amyloid plaques are not removed to the extent that they would be with regular CSF flow. Due to the decrease in brain volume, the hippocampus loses neurons, causing memory decline. Reduced brain volume also causes ventricles to lack CSF flowing within them, ultimately leading to impaired regulation of nutrients for brain repair and removal of excess proteins.

Stressors associated with pregnancy can lead to diabetes, reducing sleep, which is directly correlated with reduced CSF flow (JackW, n.d.). All these factors are attributed to the decrease in estrogen after menopause, which accelerates aging (Levine et al., 2016). Aging is already caused in women after giving birth; with menopause, the conditions for aging heighten. However, due to these effects being predominantly shown in menopause, we can conclude that the factors for AD are more severe in women because of the many factors and developments that decreased estrogen may cause (Ali et al., 2023). Due to pregnancies and menopause leading to a decreased level of estrogen, women are more prone to developing AD and the associated health issues that come with it such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and sleep disorders (Batulan, Bhimla, and Higginbotham, 2024). A study at Johns Hopkins found that there had been a small but significant (3.03%) increase in self-reports of anxiety and depression amongst women in states where abortion bans have affected women more detrimentally ages 18-45 in the six months following the overturning of Roe v. Wade (“Analysis of U.S. Census Survey Data Reveals Uptick in Anxiety and Depression Among Women in States With Trigger Laws Post-Dobbs Abortion Decision,” 2024). As pregnancy continues, the stress inflicted upon women’s bodies causes them to age more. This disparity between men and women developing AD can be caused by the contributing factors of societal pressure on women to have children.

Women developing AD at a heightened level than men is not an uncontrollable biological issue. The stigma around women that do not have children can cause lasting detrimental effects on women as it increases their chances of developing AD. Bans on abortion and pressure for child rearing have extended effects on women’s bodies that are not widely known. Policy makers need to recognize the biological research on gendered aging to fully understand the scope and consequences of their policies. Body autonomy should be a right for all women since pregnancies can adversely affect their health.

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