AROUND the age of fifty, ladies cease releasing eggs and may now not have kids. We think about this menopause a pure a part of life, however in a single respect, it’s actually somewhat uncommon – there are hardly some other species through which females expertise reproductive shutdown after they usually nonetheless have a long time of wholesome life forward.

So what’s the level of menopause? The most recent findings help the concept that it’s to do with our uniquely demanding offspring and the necessity to hold kinfolk who may look after them wholesome and mentally sharp for so long as potential.

Basic evolutionary idea predicts that organisms ought to solely stay so long as they’ll move on their genes. This largely holds true throughout the animal kingdom: apart from people, solely feminine orcas, short-finned pilot whales, belugas and narwhals are inclined to survive properly past their fertile years.

Does menopause serve a goal?

The explanation we’ve got menopause might merely be as a result of there are organic constraints on how lengthy it’s potential to keep up high-quality eggs, says Michael Gurven on the College of California, Santa Barbara. The typical age of the onset of menopause in people has barely budged at the same time as life expectancy has soared, he says. “We undoubtedly appear to be hitting a wall.”

Males might not expertise the identical clear-cut finish to their fertility as a result of they’ll hold creating new sperm as they age, albeit with declining amount and high quality, whereas…