Women who don't give birth live longer: medical professor's remark sparks controversy

Korea Herald

08-05-2025

Public opinion split between accurate depiction of burden of childbirth and criticism of discouraging women from having kids
South Korean medical professor Yoo Seong-ho's recent claim on the supposed trade-offs between longevity and multiple childbirths have sparked a controversy here, with some complaining that the comment disparages women from giving birth.
Yoo, a professor of forensic medicine at Seoul National University College of Medicine, said in a YouTube video on his channel, Deadmantalk, that statistically, women who give multiple births have shorter lifespans whereas women who never gave birth age less.
"It is true that women who give birth multiple times die at (relatively) earlier ages," he said in the video posted on his channel, after which he added that women who never gave birth do not age as much as women who did.
When lawyer Seo Hye-jin, a female panelist in the video, said not being married may be a bigger factor in women aging less, Yoo reiterated that childbirth is the biggest factor and it is "the most critical."
Yoo's remarks have sparked a heated debate online, with many internet users responding with anecdotal accounts of women who gave birth to multiple children and went on to live long, healthy lives. Some critics argued that such comments could discourage women from having children, which is "inappropriate" given South Korea's ongoing struggle with its chronically low birthrate.
South Korea's total fertility rate -- the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime -- was 0.75 in 2024, the lowest among the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Other commenters said that the medical professional was just emphasizing the significant physical toll childbirth can take on the body.
Does giving birth actually hurt life expectancy?
While many believe that going through immense pain and burden of childbirth is detrimental to a woman's lifespan and health, the trade-off between being a parent and living long has not yet been proven.
It is scientifically proven that pregnancy, childbirth and lactation demand a significant amount of extra energy, along with the obvious fact that labor is characterized by a very high level of pain.
Researchers of Kent State University in Ohio found evidence pregnancy was associated with accelerated aging among Filipina women due to energy allocation of the body toward fecundity, in the study "A life for a (shorter) life: The reproduction–longevity trade-off." The energy spent on reproduction increases the chance of offspring survival, but minimization of somatic maintenance accelerates biological aging on the mother's part.
But other reports based on census data have indicated that having children actually increases women's lifespans, for example the research "Payback time? Influence of having children on mortality in old age" by researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and Stockholm University.
The study of the general population in Sweden showed that both men and woman with at least one child experienced lower death risks than men and women without children, which was also the case when effect of having a partner was taken into account.
The Swedish state also provides generous support for raising children, such as universal subsidized child care and paid parental leave of 480 days per child to be shared by both parents.