I have heard quite a few theories for menopause, but I have never heard of
the above, until recently. When I think about it though, there could be some
truth to this because it is largely true that older men do in fact gravitate
towards younger mates.
In a recent article by Science Daily, researchers have concluded that
what causes menopause in women is actually men, relating specifically to reproduction.
Read the full story, by following the link below:-
From the article
“Over time, human males have shown a preference for younger women
in selecting mates, stacking the Darwinian deck against continued fertility in
older women, the researchers have found.
"In a sense it is like aging, but it is different because it
is an all-or-nothing process that has been accelerated because of preferential
mating," says Singh, a professor in McMaster's Department of Biology whose
research specialties include the evolution of human diversity.
While conventional thinking has held that menopause
prevents older women from continuing to reproduce, in fact, the researchers'
new theory says it is the lack of reproduction that has given rise to menopause.”
A very interesting read! However, I believe menopause is not an unintentional cause of preferential mating, instead, preferential mating directly leads to the accumulation of mutations that results in infertility in older women. Preferential mating is an example of sexual selection, which is a non-random process resulting in selection against genes that promote fertilization in older women. Since older women experience lack of reproductivity, mutations accumulate in their body such that they no longer need to reproduce and thus develop menopause. Therefore, preferentially mating intentionally leads to menopause.
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