Women outlive men globally yet experience higher rates of disability and age-related disease in those extra years—a disparity rooted in biological sex differences, reproductive aging trajectories, and menopause's systemic effects. GeroSCORE, a new $7.5 million NIH-funded center at USC, is designed to move beyond documenting these differences toward identifying the mechanistic underpinnings that could reveal intervention points applicable across populations.
Key Points
- Women live longer but spend more years with disability and disease burden
- Menopause is a systemic transition affecting brain, bone, cardiovascular, and metabolic function
- Sex differences reveal aging mechanisms that benefit intervention design for all populations
Longevity Analysis
The study of sex differences in aging has been systematically neglected, yet women and men follow distinctly different aging trajectories shaped by hormonal shifts, genetic expression, and environmental interaction across the lifespan. Understanding why women show greater resilience to some aspects of aging while remaining more vulnerable to others—particularly neurodegeneration and metabolic dysfunction—exposes underlying biological mechanisms applicable to both sexes. This research recognizes that menopause is not a reproductive endpoint but a profound systemic transition affecting multiple physiological networks; decoding these signals and their downstream consequences requires integrated investigation across biological, behavioral, and social domains.
Original published by Longevity.Technology, by Eleanor Garth.