Womens Health
  • Reproductive Health
    • All
    • Cancer
    • Gynecology
    • Infections

    Endometrial Carcinoma-Symptoms and Treatment Options

    Treatment Overview For Cervical Cancer

    Preparing For Your Visit To The Gynecologist

    Elective Termination Of Pregnancy

    Advances In Gynecological Surgery

    Lifelong Infection

    Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

    Maternal Indications For Abortion

    Fallopian Tube Infection

  • Birth Control
    • All
    • Birth Control Options
    • Birth Control Pill
    • Mirena And IUD

    The IUD As Emergency Contraception

    Uterine Perforation Risk From Mirena

    The Risks Of Unapproved IUD’s

    Pill Causes Triple Negative Breast Cancer

    Is The Pill Passé?

    Indiana Women Say Yaz Is Bad

    Maybe It’s Time To Switch?

    The Pill And Your Bones

    The Benefits And Demerits Of The Pill

  • Fibroids
    • All
    • Fibroid Treatment
    • Fibroids And Fertility
    • Uterine Fibroids

    What About Homeopathy?

    Infertility In Indian Women

    Preserving Your Fertility

    Fibroids And Getting Pregnant

    Can Herbs Make A Difference?

    Chinese Fibroid Treatment

    On Pins And Needles With Fibroids

    Experimental Treatment

    Obesity Doesn’t Cause Complications

  • Pregnancy
    • All
    • Labour And Delivery
    • Postpartum And Baby Care
    • Pregnancy Health
    • Pregnancy infections
    • Pregnancy Symptoms

    Understanding Blood Pressure

    Is Alcohol Consumption Safe?

    Listeriosis And Pregnancy

    Mercury And Omega-3s

    Harmful  Cravings

    Harmful Cravings

    PIH Or Preeclampsia

    Ancient Practices

    Obesity During Pregnancy

    One For Mommy, One For Baby

  • Infertility
    • All
    • Alternative Treatments
    • Drugs And Treatments
    • Infertility and Emotions
    • Infertility Causes
    • IUI
    • IVF

    Tough IUI Decisions

    Traveling Abroad For IUI

    Assume The Position

    Choosing Between IVF And IUI

    Fertility Matchmaking

    Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and Infertility

    What You Need to Know About IVF

    Thinking About Infertility Long Before It’s Baby Time

    IVF Step By Step – Step Three

  • Menstrual Cycle
    • All
    • Menstruation Cycle
    • Menstruation Problems
    • PMS

    The Menstrual Cycle As Fertility Marker

    Charting Your Cycle

    More Severe Menstruation Symptoms

    Can I Get Pregnant During My Period?

    Menstruation And Fertility

    Regular Or Irregular -What Does It Mean?

    Different kinds of irregular menstrual cycles.

    Food Cravings

    Changes To Your Cycle

No Result
View All Result
  • Reproductive Health
    • All
    • Cancer
    • Gynecology
    • Infections

    Endometrial Carcinoma-Symptoms and Treatment Options

    Treatment Overview For Cervical Cancer

    Preparing For Your Visit To The Gynecologist

    Elective Termination Of Pregnancy

    Advances In Gynecological Surgery

    Lifelong Infection

    Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

    Maternal Indications For Abortion

    Fallopian Tube Infection

  • Birth Control
    • All
    • Birth Control Options
    • Birth Control Pill
    • Mirena And IUD

    The IUD As Emergency Contraception

    Uterine Perforation Risk From Mirena

    The Risks Of Unapproved IUD’s

    Pill Causes Triple Negative Breast Cancer

    Is The Pill Passé?

    Indiana Women Say Yaz Is Bad

    Maybe It’s Time To Switch?

    The Pill And Your Bones

    The Benefits And Demerits Of The Pill

  • Fibroids
    • All
    • Fibroid Treatment
    • Fibroids And Fertility
    • Uterine Fibroids

    What About Homeopathy?

    Infertility In Indian Women

    Preserving Your Fertility

    Fibroids And Getting Pregnant

    Can Herbs Make A Difference?

    Chinese Fibroid Treatment

    On Pins And Needles With Fibroids

    Experimental Treatment

    Obesity Doesn’t Cause Complications

  • Pregnancy
    • All
    • Labour And Delivery
    • Postpartum And Baby Care
    • Pregnancy Health
    • Pregnancy infections
    • Pregnancy Symptoms

    Understanding Blood Pressure

    Is Alcohol Consumption Safe?

    Listeriosis And Pregnancy

    Mercury And Omega-3s

    Harmful  Cravings

    Harmful Cravings

    PIH Or Preeclampsia

    Ancient Practices

    Obesity During Pregnancy

    One For Mommy, One For Baby

  • Infertility
    • All
    • Alternative Treatments
    • Drugs And Treatments
    • Infertility and Emotions
    • Infertility Causes
    • IUI
    • IVF

    Tough IUI Decisions

    Traveling Abroad For IUI

    Assume The Position

    Choosing Between IVF And IUI

    Fertility Matchmaking

    Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and Infertility

    What You Need to Know About IVF

    Thinking About Infertility Long Before It’s Baby Time

    IVF Step By Step – Step Three

  • Menstrual Cycle
    • All
    • Menstruation Cycle
    • Menstruation Problems
    • PMS

    The Menstrual Cycle As Fertility Marker

    Charting Your Cycle

    More Severe Menstruation Symptoms

    Can I Get Pregnant During My Period?

    Menstruation And Fertility

    Regular Or Irregular -What Does It Mean?

    Different kinds of irregular menstrual cycles.

    Food Cravings

    Changes To Your Cycle

No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Home Menopause Women After Menopause

Life After Fertility

by admin
02.10.2020
in Women After Menopause
0
0
SHARES
18
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Life After Fertility

Anthropologists and evolutionary biologists have wondered for more than 50 years about the purpose of menopause. Now, some new studies shed light on the subject and also attempt to answer the question of why modern women outlive their fertile years by such a long span of time.

The End?

According to the theory of evolution, once a woman passes her fertile years, she has outlived her purpose for living. Once women can no longer breed, the selection of genes, complicit in evolution and in the survival of the fittest, can no longer take place. A woman’s ovaries cease to produce eggs when she enters her 50’s at which point, evolutionary theory would have us believe she has come to the end of her reason for existence.

One theory, known as the “grandmother hypothesis” explains the seeming conundrum of the long postmenopausal years by claiming the necessity of a grandmother to ensure the survival of the grandchildren, so that her own genes will flourish through this generation. Those skeptical of this theory believe that this theory goes wrong when one applies basic math to the situation. A woman who bears children passes down half of her genes, but a grandmother passes only a quarter of her grandmotherly genes. Why should a woman give up bearing her own children to assist in the continuation of a smaller number of her own genes?

Evolutionary biologist Michael Cant, of the University of Exeter in England, and co-author of a study on menopause says, “The problem is that these grandmother benefits aren’t big enough to ever favor stopping breeding between the ages of 40 and 50. When you look at data from hunter-gatherers and other natural fertility populations, the sums just don’t add up.” Cant feels that grandmothers may benefit their grandchildren in many ways, but that the genetic tradeoff just isn’t that great when compared to bearing another child.

Dueling Generations

Cant and his co-author, evolutionary biologist Rufus Johnstone, from the University of Cambridge, employed game theory to demonstrate that menopause evolved because of a conflict between reproducing generations. In certain species, young females don’t begin to reproduce until they’ve assisted the older generation in bearing females. In human society, the younger women supplant their elders and force the older women to step down from their breeding tasks. Cant remarks that primates also have a postmenopausal life span, but humans are remarkable in that there is no overlap between the breeding generations.

Anthropologist Kirsten Hawkes, of the University of Utah, birthed the grandmother hypothesis but says that Cant and Johnstone are correct in focusing on the conflict between the generations. Hawkes mentions whales giving birth in their 80’s and elephants bearing well into their 60’s and posits, “It’s clearly something selection can adjust. So explaining why it hasn’t in us has to be part of the story.”

Another theory, the “mother hypothesis,” explains that older mothers have more to gain by devoting their resources to the children they already have, rather than bearing new children. This seems to be borne out by the fact that the infants of older women are at a greater risk for birth defects and stillbirth, and the older mother herself is at an increased risk for dying in childbirth.

Connect with other menopausal women in our menopause forum and get the answers to your questions about menopause like “will i gain weight in menopause?”

Previous Post

Gynecology

Next Post

That Time Of The Month: PMS

admin

Next Post

That Time Of The Month: PMS

No Result
View All Result

Recent Posts

  • Endometrial Carcinoma-Symptoms and Treatment Options
  • PCOS and Insulin Resistance
  • Is There Life After Menopause
  • Tough IUI Decisions
  • The IUD As Emergency Contraception

Recent Comments

    Categories

    Recent News

    PCOS and Insulin Resistance

    14.01.2021

    Endometrial Carcinoma-Symptoms and Treatment Options

    10.01.2021
    • About Us
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy & Policy
    • Contact

    © 2020 Women's health

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Reproductive Health
    • Birth Control
    • Fibroids
    • Pregnancy
    • Infertility
    • Menstrual Cycle

    © 2020 Women's health