--- title: What Ovaries Reveal About the Secret Ways Women Age, According to Francesca Duncan description: “Pretty much every organ system you can think of is touched by the ovaries,” says Francesca Duncan, a reproductive biologist at Northwestern University and Buck Institute for Research on Aging. canonical: https://time.com/collection/longevity-leaders/2026/francesca-duncan/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-08-20T13:01:12.892Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-20T13:01:13.039Z article:section: Health og:title: What Ovaries Reveal About the Secret Ways Women Age, According to Francesca Duncan og:description: “Pretty much every organ system you can think of is touched by the ovaries,” says Francesca Duncan, a reproductive biologist at Northwestern University and Buck Institute for Research on Aging og:url: https://time.com/collection/longevity-leaders/2026/francesca-duncan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta285e96e4781b4c0/6a7dfb935798c907235a7a1d/Duncan-%E2%80%94-Feinberg-School-of-Medicine.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9%2Coffset-x0.00%2Coffset-y0.00 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: What Ovaries Reveal About the Secret Ways Women Age, According to Francesca Duncan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Ovaries Reveal About the Secret Ways Women Age, According to Francesca Duncan twitter:description: “Pretty much every organ system you can think of is touched by the ovaries,” says Francesca Duncan, a reproductive biologist at Northwestern University and Buck Institute for Research on Aging twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta285e96e4781b4c0/6a7dfb935798c907235a7a1d/Duncan-%E2%80%94-Feinberg-School-of-Medicine.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9%2Coffset-x0.00%2Coffset-y0.00 --- Aug 20, 2026 # What Ovaries Reveal About the Secret Ways Women Age, According to Francesca Duncan > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Dominique Mosbergen](https://time.com/author/dominique-mosbergen/) ## Dominique Mosbergen Health correspondent  Feinberg School of Medicine Scientists have long been preoccupied by the ovary’s babymaking potential. But mounting evidence suggests the organ is key not just to reproduction, but to a woman’s health span—the years she spends in good health overall. “Pretty much every organ system you can think of is touched by the ovaries,” says Francesca Duncan, a reproductive biologist at Northwestern University and Buck Institute for Research on Aging. “For women, you absolutely cannot have a conversation about health span unless you're also talking about the ovaries because they are so central to healthy longevity.” Duncan is among a handful of pioneering scientists who have uncovered just how important the ovaries are to health, and who are now using that knowledge to find ways to help not just women, but everyone, live longer and healthier lives. One of Duncan’s major findings is that ovaries become increasingly inflamed, fibrotic—or scarred—and stiff over time. This stiffness affects egg quality and can hinder egg release, Duncan says, and could increase risks of diseases including ovarian cancer. Other organs, including the heart, lungs and liver, also become more fibrotic over time, and Duncan says the ovary could offer clues into aging across the body. “This is one of the reasons why I think studying the ovary is important. By comparing the ovary to these other organ systems, we could potentially really understand what’s happening and find shared mechanisms,” she says. In April 2026, Duncan published a study that showed how post-menopausal ovaries—previously assumed to, as she put it, “just sit there and not do anything”—become more scarred and inflamed over time. Duncan says she was “totally stunned” by this discovery and says it’s possible that post-menopausal ovaries send out inflammatory signals that could be damaging to health. “I think this is a big frontier,” she says. “It highlights just how much we don’t know.” Duncan’s lab is currently developing an ultrasound test to measure ovarian stiffness that she says could be used as a biomarker of aging and ovarian health, and also to predict outcomes of fertility treatments like in-vitro fertilization. Already, researchers are exploring therapies based on the findings. Building on Duncan’s research, a group in China published a paper in February 2026 that showed how an existing anti-fibrotic drug could boost ovary function in mice and possibly people too. The drug appeared to [restore fertility in women with primary ovarian insufficiency](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz4075), which happens when the ovaries stop working normally before age 40\. Earlier in her career, Duncan found that proteins known as cohesins diminish with age, leading to chromosomal instability and other problems. Now, in Germany, researchers are looking for therapeutic ways to replenish those proteins in the ovary as a way to [enhance fertility](https://www.bio-m.org/en/media-center/news/news/ovo-labs-kuendigt-weltweit-erste-verjuengung-menschlicher-eizellen-an-hoffnung-fuer-millionen-ungewollt-kinderloser-paare#:~:text=Post%20press%20release-,Ovo%20Labs%20announces%20world's%20first%20rejuvenation%20of%20human%20eggs,for%20millions%20of%20aspiring%20parents&text=Ovo%20Labs%2C%20a%20pioneering%20biotechnology,largest%20fertility%20conference%2C%20Fertility%202026.). Though much is still unknown about the ovary’s link to health span, the field of aging research has finally come around to the idea, Duncan says. She remembers attending a program for early-career scientists in 2013 on the biology of aging, and feeling “totally like the oddball out.” “We had to go around the room and say what we worked on. I said I was studying the ovary, and everyone was like, ‘That’s nice. That’s not aging.’ And that was really the attitude for many years,” she says. But not anymore. 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