SCIENTIST FLOATED 3-MONTH PERIODS TO EXTEND FERTILITY
A Chinese biologist floated the idea of periods every three months as a way to extend fertility, and she was blunt about the risks.
Hongmei Wang, 52, was born in Inner Mongolia and works at the State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology in Beijing. She laid out her thinking in an interview with EL PAÍS published January 7, 2026.
Her lab studies human reproduction and embryonic development, including possible ways to stretch out reproductive years.
“If we inhibit ovulation, we can preserve available eggs, but at the same time, we inhibit the production of estrogen, which is a very important molecule for health,” Wang said.
The idea, and the catch
The concept is to preserve some healthy, available eggs by having fewer periods. It is still an open question being explored in mouse experiments.
Medical Daily reported that women are born with a finite egg supply that shrinks over time, and that fertility and egg quality decline with age, especially after the mid-30s.
In a typical cycle, several eggs are recruited, but one usually becomes dominant and is released. Most of the rest are lost through atresia, the breakdown of unused eggs.
Estrogen supports bone density and cardiovascular health, among other functions. Medical Daily reported that suppressing it could carry risks, including bone loss and changes in heart health.
Egg freezing stores eggs, but it does not stop ovarian aging or the natural drop in egg quality, Medical Daily reported.
What Wang’s lab has reported
Delaying menopause is another approach under exploration. EL PAÍS reported that Wang’s mouse studies suggest it may be possible, though she warned of risks.
The newspaper also described a study in which scientists injected human stem cells into sterile monkeys. A baby monkey was born and was alive and healthy when Wang gave her interview.
Wang also said her team ran a small clinical trial of 63 women with premature ovarian failure. Four of them, she said, had healthy children after stem-cell transplants.
Those figures come from Wang’s own account in the interview. EL PAÍS described her research as preliminary and noted that technical and legal challenges limit what is known about early embryonic development.
Wang was also working with Pompeu Fabra University professor Alfonso Martínez Arias on embryonic models made with human stem cells. She gave the interview after arriving in Spain for a scientific conference organized by the Barcelona university.
Her name also appears on a 2012 paper on plasma microRNAs in patients with premature ovarian failure. The paper looked at the possible role of miR-23a in granulosa-cell apoptosis.
Wang did not oversell the concept. “It’s one thing for something to be possible from the technical perspective, like delaying menstruation or extending reproductive life, and another for people to actually want for it to be carried out,” she said.
Medical Daily wrote on July 14, 2026 that the proposal is experimental and is not an established fertility-preserving treatment.
