If you are a woman, you know that you will eventually go into menopause. That’s the time later in life when your period permanently stops and you are no longer able to have children. Most women go into menopause in their 40s or 50s.
But have you ever wondered why women experience menopause? One research team headed by Rama Singh, a professor in the department of biology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, claims men are the cause of menopause.
In a research paper published in the June issue of PLOS Computational Biology, Singh and his colleagues explained their hypothesis that menopause is actually a result of a “male mating preference for younger females”.
A key factor in their research is the idea that people have sex both to create children and because, as Singh says, “Sex is fun.” He believes that over time, men found having sex with younger women to be more enjoyable even when they were not concerned about the woman’s ability to successfully have a child.
Singh, an evolutionary geneticist, contends that this preference allowed changes in genes later in life to send women into menopause.
Singh explained that if his model is correct, male preference for younger women would, over time, allow genetic mutations to accumulate in older women resulting in a decline in fertility. Therefore he believes that older women’s lack of reproduction due to men’s preference for younger sex partners is the cause of menopause.
Dr. Mache Seibel, America’s health expert and editor of My Menopause Magazine, disagrees with Singh’s conclusions. Seibel said, “The conclusions place a much heavier emphasis on statistics than on sound thinking. Menopause as we know it today has more to do with the fact that women live longer now than ever before.”
Seibel also pointed out that women have a greater chance of successfully carrying a child to term earlier in their life.
Seibel said, “Women are born with approximately 7 million eggs and by puberty, the number is down to 400,000 which are ovulated in groups of 30 or so over the next 30 years. The later in age that a pregnancy occurs, the greater the potential for that egg to possess a chromosomal abnormality. Menopause is an evolutionary construct that puts most of a woman's eggs in a younger basket to increase the chances for a healthy baby.”
Seibel concluded, “Women and men are living longer but the driving force in nature across all species is reproduction. And that is more likely to occur when women are younger, more likely to be healthy, more likely to have healthy babies and more likely up be around to raise their children. The fact that people are living longer has nothing to do with men or their preferences.”
Singh anticipates that other scientists will also be skeptical about his work. For now, the true cause of menopause remains a mystery.
But Dr. Seibel shared this advice for women who want to have children: “If having children is important to a woman, it is best she consider having children at a younger age - ideally completing her childbearing by her mid thirties. Waiting until the late thirties and forties greatly lowers your potential for success.”
If you have questions about your fertility or menopause, talk to your health care provider.
Do you agree? Are younger women really better partners? Take our poll to tell us what you think.
Sources:
Today Health. Menopause cause? It may well be men, scientists say. Brian Alexander. Web. July 15, 2013.
http://www.today.com/health/menopause-cause-it-may-well-be-men-scientist...
Science Daily. Menopause May Be an Unintended outcome of Men’s Preference for Younger Mates. July 15, 2013.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130614082653.htm
Mayo Clinic. Menopause. Web. July 15, 2013.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/menopause/DS00119
PLOS Computational Biology. Mate Choice and the Origin of Menopause. Richard A. Morton, Jonathan R. Stone, Rama S. Singh. Web. July 15, 2013.
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi....
Reviewed July 17, 2013
By Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith