The Longitudinal Evaluation of Ovarian Aging and Cardiovascular Risk
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03825120. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Despite significant improvements in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the growing aging population suggests CVD will continue to pose a significant public health burden. Women are a special group where microvascular disease is more common and traditional risk factors may not fully identify risk. Women's reproductive history (e.g. menarcheal age, menstrual cycles, infertility, pregnancy, menopause) may pose unique risk and suggests an opportunity for new approaches. The investigators propose a women-centered approach for early identification of women at risk that investigates the unique loss of reproductive function at an age long before other vital systems fail. Despite its importance, little is known about the determinants or correlates of ovarian aging, or the health implications, especially in diverse communities. Only recently have reliable biomarkers of the remaining oocyte pool been available for use in normally cycling women. This availability gives us a unique opportunity to characterize the association between "ovarian age" (cross-sectional) and the rate of "ovarian aging" or oocyte decline over time (longitudinal) and the health implications of accelerated oocyte loss. The investigators hypothesize ovarian age/aging provides a window onto the general health of women. The investigators suggest it is not the progressive deficiency of estrogen with menopause that increases risk, but common underlying cellular aging mechanisms first evident in young populations as lower ovarian reserve (follicle number) due to the unique sensitivity of the ovary. Studies of cellular aging focused on mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, inflammation, and telomere length have identified correlations with CVD risk. Improved understanding of the mechanisms of cellular aging suggests telomere shortening and dysfunction may drive mitochondrial dysfunction and potentially the parallel between cellular aging and CVD. The oocyte is particularly sensitive to mitochondrial dysfunction, having 10 times the number of mitochondria as any somatic cell. Additionally, mitochondrial dysfunction and telomere shortening have been associated with ovarian aging. This begs the question of whether, given the susceptibility of the ovary to mitochondrial dysfunction, accelerated ovarian aging may be a harbinger of subsequent CVD risk. To address this critical question, the investigators propose to leverage the largest and most ethnically diverse population of normal reproductive-aged women, with detailed measures of ovarian age, and to deploy peripheral endothelial function testing, a non-invasive sensitive marker of early CVD risk. Ovarian aging is thought to be largely genetically determined, but the impact of race/ethnicity has not been fully explored. Evaluating the impact of ethnicity on ovarian aging, and combining this information with the impact of modifiable behavioral risk factors, may help clarify CVD risk in young, ethnically-diverse, reproductive-age women. The investigators believe improving our understanding of factors that affect the rate of oocyte/follicle loss and the relationship with CVD risk factors will promote a novel method to identify women at earlier and/or increased cardiac risk.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT03825120
- Recruitment status
- Enrolling by invitation
- Study type
- Observational
- Phase
- Not listed
- Enrollment
- 865 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
Not listed
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 35 Years to 55 Years
- Sex
- Female
- Healthy volunteers
- Not listed
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Aug 14, 2018
- Primary completion
- May 1, 2025
- Completion
- Dec 1, 2025
- Last update posted
- Sep 18, 2024
2018 – 2025
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of California, San Francisco | San Francisco | California | 94115 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03825120, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Sep 18, 2024 · Synced Sep 5, 2026
Related: full search, browse by condition, browse by drug or therapy, browse by sponsor, browse by U.S. city.
Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03825120 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.