Blame men for menopause,McMaster University study suggests

Started by outdoors, Jun 14, 2013, 01:30 PM

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outdoors


Blame men for menopause, McMaster University study suggests

Using computer modelling, researchers at McMaster University found that male preference for younger mates left older women with less chance of reproducing

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Theories abound as to why women go into menopause, but the latest hypothesis being put forward suggests it may be men -- or specifically their preference for younger mates --that has led to women's loss of fertility at a certain age.
Researchers at McMaster University believe that over tens of thousands of years, a lack of reproduction among older women has given rise to menopause as an unintended result of evolutionary natural selection.
Using computer modelling, the researchers found that over time, competition among men of all ages for younger mates left older females with much less chance of reproducing.
"We are saying somewhere along the line, men began to change their preference in mating," said evolutionary biologist Rama Singh, co-author of the study published in this week's issue of the journal PLOS Computational Biology.
"What we're saying is that menopause will occur if there is a preferential mating with younger women and older women are not reproducing," he said Thursday from Hamilton.
Singh said women would have had children when they were younger -- from 15 to 30, based on the computer model.



lots more....
http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/06/14/hamilton-menopause-men.html

Iron John

And I've got a computer model for them: Female preference for older males leaves younger males with less chance of reproducing. 

neoteny

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"How do you evolve infertility? It is contrary to the whole notion of natural selection. Natural selection selects for fertility, for reproduction -- not for stopping it," [Singh] said.

Fascinating. An evolutionary biologist who never heard about sexual selection.
The spreading of information about the [quantum] system through the [classical] environment is ultimately responsible for the emergence of "objective reality." 

Wojciech Hubert Zurek: Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical

Eviltwin

Isn't that why they call it "menopause"? Men see all those fat, grouchy old women and pause.  :greener:
Affirmative Action: The federal government takes your job away from you and gives it to a woman. Then she sneers at you because you are unemployed.

bluegrass

Most younger people don't know this, but most women lose all of their libido after menopause.  I'd be willing to bet that there's not a single man in the US about to tie the knot that knows that lifetime monogamy will likely involve nearly two decades of celibacy.

Kind of sheds a whole new light on the mid life crisis and middleaged men who cheat, like General Patreus.  Most of those guys have gone without sex literally for years before they finally crack.
"To such females, womanhood is more sacrosanct by a thousand times than the Virgin Mary to popes--and motherhood, that degree raised to astronomic power. They have eaten the legend about themselves and believe it; they live it; they require fealty of us all." -- Philip Wylie, Generation of Vipers

Iron John

#5
Jun 15, 2013, 03:27 PM Last Edit: Jun 15, 2013, 03:33 PM by Iron John

Most younger people don't know this, but most women lose all of their libido after menopause.  I'd be willing to bet that there's not a single man in the US about to tie the knot that knows that lifetime monogamy will likely involve nearly two decades of celibacy.

Kind of sheds a whole new light on the mid life crisis and middleaged men who cheat, like General Patreus.  Most of those guys have gone without sex literally for years before they finally crack.


I think you're right.  And I don't blame men for infidelity in this particular case.  IMO, this sort of situation is a form of mental and/or emotional abuse.  One that is not easy or even possible for many men to escape from due to the current economic and legal realities of divorce in the western world.  When you get right down to brass tacks, this is not all that different than a hostage situation.  You have some one confined to a particular environment, social/marriage, under the threat of force, in this case the family court system.


P.S. You may be breaking new ground here in MRM.

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