Research Hotspots and Emerging Frontiers in Ovarian Aging: A Bibliometric Analysis (2006-2025).

INTRODUCTION

Ovarian aging has a critical impact on women's fertility and overall health. This study uses bibliometric methods to analyze the current state of research in the field of natural ovarian aging and to identify emerging trends.

METHODS

This study analyzed 653 publications from the Web of Science Core Collection (2006-2025). Using VOSviewer and CiteSpace software, the authors visualized collaboration networks and identified research hotspots through co-occurrence and co-citation analyses.

RESULTS

Annual publications in the field of natural ovarian aging showed a significant upward trend; China and the United States were the main contributors to this research area. Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Nanjing Medical University were among the institutions with the highest number of publications. Wang SX was the author with the most publications, while Broekmans FJ was the most cited scholar. Human Reproduction was a core journal in this field. Keyword co-occurrence and reference co-citation analyses indicated that mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, inflammation, fibrosis, and multi-omics research were the research hotspots and frontiers during the study period.

DISCUSSION: The surge in keywords and citations suggests that the field is undergoing a fundamental shift from clinical phenotype studies to the exploration of molecular mechanisms. Findings in hotspot areas such as fibrosis and senescent cell clearance provide potential therapeutic targets for future clinical translation.

CONCLUSION

This study employs bibliometric methods to map the current state of research, core themes, and emerging frontiers in the field of natural ovarian aging. The results offer researchers valuable insights into understanding the development trends in this field and guiding future research.