Putting the "men" back in "menopause".

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Study blames men for menopause
(AFP) – 3 hours ago
WASHINGTON — Men and their preference for younger female mates may have led to the phenomenon of menopause in women, according to a controversial study by Canadian researchers published this week.
"If women were reproducing all along, and there were no preference against older women, women would be reproducing like men are for their whole lives," said evolutionary geneticist Rama Singh, a professor at McMaster University.
Singh said the conventional "grandmother theory," which holds that older women grow infertile so that they can assist the survival of their kin by helping to raise their children's offspring, did not make sense to him.
Instead of age leading to infertility, Singh theorized that the dwindling pool of male mates for older women -- because many older men seek to mate with younger women -- led to a lack of reproduction that gave rise to menopause.
"If women were reproducing all along, and there were no preference against older women, women would be reproducing like men are for their whole lives."
His work, backed up by computer models, suggests that a male mating preference for younger females could have led to the accumulation of genetic mutations that would harm female fertility and bring on menopause.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... 42b1c8.551

[Trinity]

I thought that the female window of optimum fertility was directly proportional to age. It makes sense that a younger female has more chances of conceiving a healthy baby (assuming said female was in good all round health) and relatively speaking, it wasn't that long ago that women (or men) hoped to live beyond their 40's. Women are also born with a finite amount of eggs in the ovaries which, I guess, when we were living shorter life spans, would have taken us to our dying days but now we live so much longer, we go through the menopause when our egg supply runs out.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I've been informed elsewhere that not only is the study flawed but I'm also a inconsiderate bastard and should just shut up.

[Tyrannical]

Singh said the conventional "grandmother theory," which holds that older women grow infertile so that they can assist the survival of their kin by helping to raise their children's offspring, did not make sense to him.

Menopause is a protective strategy for women as they are less likely to survive an older child birth, and the children are more likely to have defects.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Of course, at some points in time a 24 yo could be a grandmother.

[JimC]

"If women were reproducing all along, and there were no preference against older women, women would be reproducing like men are for their whole lives."

What absolute bullshit.

There is very little metabolic cost or risk of harm to males to indulge in reproductive activity, so there is no down side to sex as long as you can.

Clearly not the same for females; it is asymmetric situation.