Childlessness May Increase Likelihood of Earlier Death - WXOW News 19 La Crosse, WI – News, Weather and Sports |

Undated (WXOW) - A surprising connection between children and longevity.

There is some indication that trying and failing to have children may affect how long some people live.

A study in the journal of Epidemiology and Community Health looked at more than 21,000 couples seeking in vitro fertility treatments.

The authors found that women who were unsuccessful in having a child were four times more likely to die prematurely from circulatory disease, cancer and accidents, than women who were mothers.

Men were about twice as likely to die early.

The risk of early death was very low, and a cause-and-effect relationship between being childless and early death has not been definitively proven.

Still, they say their work suggests that mortality rates are higher in those who are involuntarily childless.