Killer whales, grandmas and what men want: Evolutionary biologists consider menopause
By Erin Wayman
Menopause seems like a cruel prank that Mother Nature plays on women. First come the hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, irregular periods, irritability and weight gain. Then menstruation stops and fertility ends. Why, many women ask, must they suffer through this? Evolutionary biologists, it turns out, ask themselves more or less the same question. How on Earth could such a seemingly maladaptive trait ever evolve?
From a Darwinian point of view, menopause is just weird. In the game of evolution, winning means securing your genetic legacy by having as many children as possible. So it seems counterintuitive that evolution would produce women whose fertility disappears decades before they die.
That’s why it’s not surprising that some researchers think women’s postmenopausal lives are just an artifact of modern society. Now that we’re healthier and living longer, they suggest, women are outlasting the fixed supply of eggs they have from birth.
Yet there’s evidence that menopause goes all the way back to the Stone Age, Daniel Levitis of the University of Southern Denmark and colleagues conclude in the March/April Evolutionary Anthropology.