Hormones, Medications & Health Factors Affecting Biological Age

Details on how hormones and medications can change biological age results by shifting the underlying biology, from inflammation to cellular signaling.

How do hormones and medications affect biological age?

Hormones and medications can change biological age results by shifting the biology a given test measures—such as inflammation, metabolic function, immune signaling, or DNA methylation patterns. Menopause is linked to faster epigenetic aging and more pro-inflammatory IgG glycan profiles, while therapies and drugs may modify some markers without implying diagnosis.

Biological age is method-dependent: some tests emphasize DNA methylation, others routine blood markers, and others immune/inflammation biology. Hormonal transitions can move multiple upstream pathways at once (lipids, glucose regulation, vascular function, immune tone), which can shift certain biological age estimates. Menopause, for example, has been associated with epigenetic age acceleration, and the menopause transition is also associated with IgG glycome shifts consistent with a more pro-inflammatory profile. Medication effects are similarly mixed: drugs can improve clinical risk markers (which may lower “clinical” biological age composites), but direct, reproducible effects on epigenetic clocks are less established and often depend on population, drug, and follow-up length. The safest interpretation is trend-based and contextual—never using a biological age score alone to start, stop, or change medication.

How does menopause affect biological age?

Menopause is associated with measurable shifts in biological aging markers. Earlier menopause, surgical menopause, and longer time since menopause have been linked to greater epigenetic age acceleration in blood in population datasets. Menopause is also associated with IgG glycosylation changes that trend toward a more pro-inflammatory immune profile.

Mechanistically, menopause involves a decline in ovarian hormones that affects immune regulation, metabolism, and inflammatory signaling—systems that many biological age measures reflect. Epigenetic clock studies have reported associations between menopause-related variables and higher epigenetic age acceleration. Separately, large cohort glycomics work shows the transition to postmenopause is accompanied by decreases in IgG galactosylation/sialylation and other shifts consistent with higher inflammatory potential, and experimental/human data support a regulatory role of estrogens in IgG glycosylation. These findings describe population-level biology and do not diagnose disease; they mainly explain why menopause can move aging-related biomarkers even in otherwise healthy individuals.

How do hormones affect biological age?

Hormones can influence biological age metrics because they regulate immune activity, inflammation, and metabolism—core inputs for many aging models. Sex steroids (estrogen/testosterone) and stress-axis hormones (cortisol/DHEAS balance) have been associated with differences in epigenetic aging measures, but causality and clinical meaning vary by study and biomarker.

Sex hormones shape immune behavior and inflammatory tone across the lifespan, and estrogen deprivation after menopause is linked to measurable immune changes. In epigenetic aging research, circulating sex hormones and related ratios have been associated with “younger” or “older” profiles depending on the clock and population studied. Stress physiology can also matter: work examining cortisol and DHEAS suggests that the cortisol/DHEAS ratio (a marker of HPA-axis balance) can correlate with epigenetic age acceleration in some datasets. Because hormones also influence downstream clinical markers (lipids, glucose, body composition), they may shift some biological age scores indirectly even when DNA-methylation measures change little.

Does HRT affect biological age?

Hormone therapy (HT/HRT) may be associated with slightly “younger” biological aging profiles in some observational datasets, but this does not prove that HRT reverses aging. HRT primarily treats menopausal symptoms and prevents bone loss in appropriately selected patients; it is not a general anti-aging therapy.

A large UK Biobank cohort analysis reported that hormone therapy use was associated with a smaller discrepancy between biological and chronological age, with effect sizes that were statistically significant but modest—an association, not a causal guarantee. Randomized-trial biospecimen work (e.g., ELITE-related analyses) shows that hormone therapy can change blood DNA methylation at specific sites, but the functional and long-term clinical implications of those methylation changes remain uncertain. Clinical guidance emphasizes individualized decision-making based on symptoms, age, time since menopause, and contraindications—framing HRT around symptom relief and risk-benefit balance rather than “biological age optimization.”

Can medications affect biological age?

Yes—medications can affect biological age results, mainly by changing the biomarkers those tests use (lipids, glucose, inflammation) and, in some cases, DNA methylation measures. Evidence that specific drugs reliably “slow aging clocks” is limited and often population-specific; findings should be interpreted cautiously and never treated as a reason to change prescriptions.

For clinical biomarker–based aging scores, medication effects are straightforward: drugs that improve blood pressure, LDL, HbA1c, or inflammation can shift composite risk biology in a favorable direction. For epigenetic clocks, intervention evidence is mixed. A post-hoc analysis of a randomized metformin and weight-loss trial (6 months) reported no significant differences in epigenetic aging measures by intervention arm, illustrating that short-term medication effects may be small or clock-dependent. Some signals exist in narrower contexts: for example, aspirin has been examined in relation to DNA methylation “mitotic” clocks, and a pilot REPRIEVE substudy suggested pitavastatin may stabilize a pace-of-aging measure (DunedinPACE) in people with HIV—preliminary and not generalizable. Overall, biological age is best used to support monitoring, alongside clinical endpoints, not as a medication decision tool.

Scope disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute a medical diagnosis or treatment guide.

Scientific grounding: This information is aligned with findings from peer-reviewed research in the fields of aging biology and molecular biomarkers.

GlycanAge provides biological age testing to help individuals monitor their immune health and chronic inflammation patterns over time.