Heck, I am eagerly awaiting menopause.
I think the evolutionary theory that women needed to stay alive long enough to see their progeny mature is accurate.
Howeve,r i would think it would happen sooner, and probalby for the better.
I think menopause should strat around 35.
Of course, the one bad thing about it is-women then have a greater chance of health problems, as they are no longe ruseful for childbearing-nature doesn’t care to protect them as much.
Here’s a link: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/020920.html
My issue is here:
The main reason “average life expectancy” was so low was because of a high infant mortality. Once a female made it past 2 year old, or better yet 5 or 10, she had a good chance of living past menopause (provided she didn’t die in childbirth). So, what gives?
I think Unka Cec’ missed the whole points of the questions/issues: 1) the question was WHY and his answer was BECAUSE… Saying that’s just the way it is for mammals, begs the question. 2) is the issue of feminist jealousy that a man can continue to sire offspring much longer. U.C. ignored this totally, not even giving the bloede kuh the answer that men and women are different. What was requested was some insight into god’s mind, not the Discovery Channel.
Certainly the figure of 47 years was for life expectancy at birth; however, it doesn’t necessarily stand to reason that there were hordes of grannies out there nurturing their littl’uns.
I suspect the reason for menopause is biological; the demands on the human body of the menstrual cycle and pregnancy, and the fragility of egg-producing cells, make a later menopause (or no menopause) untenable. There are other long-lived mammals; do they stop ovulating?
Interestingly, New Scientist had an article about this a few days ago:
I started mine at about 39. It can be a pain but it’s nice not having the monthly.
gee, thats odd.
I had you pegged for age 28 myself His…
Ha! Would you believe I’m 47?
You don’t look a day over 30! 
You are older than I. I am 43, and waiting impatiently for menopause.
Did you have symptoms?
Yes, I started being very late for my monthly so I finally went to the gyn and they tested me and told me it was menopause or what they call perimenopause. Haven’t had it as bad as a lot of women. Some hot flashes, dry you know what. Had trouble with the hormones too, Made my breasts very sore. Dr. finally told me I had to either stay on or off them couldn’t keep quitting and starting again. I’d go off and my you know what would become very very dry, could hardly have relations with husband and also felt kind of burning. Then I’d take them and my breasts would become unbearable. I was kind of between a rock and a hard place. Anyway they finally tried something that didn’t seen to affect my breasts as much. It’s great not having a monthly though.
what are the average ages for menopause to start?
Menopause is mostly determined by hereditary factors, so your best bet in predicting yours is to ask your mom when she stopped having periods. “Menopause” is defined as not having a period for a full year, but it’s a progressive thing. Hormones start to fluctuate in a woman’s 30s and 40s and perimenopausal symptoms can start to occur five or even up to ten years before menopause. My gynecologist is very experienced, well-read and up-to-date on the research and he calls menopause a design flaw. I tend to agree as loss of estrogen (and progesterone, too) seems to cause a lot of problems for some people, at least on the way to menopause. Not that anyone’s asked, but in my opinion it’s really important for women to develop good eating habits and a high level of fitness well before then, because otherwise it’s easy to go to the dogs real fast.
ps - I’ll be 48 tomorrow.
JillGat, that is the first post I’ve seen that brings up genetics in this debate which is close to what I’d like to propose. I think genetics has a large role - it’s like Parkinson’s or Alzheimers, these diseases are passed on to the next generation because the affected (diseased) individual has already passed their genes on to the next generation, so there is no selection against such diseases.
A second proposal - genetic disorders in children increase with a woman’s age…would ancient tribes (or even further back when menopause first evolved in mammals) without menoupause have been as successful at ancient tribes/species who did? Imagine a 60 year old woman gets pregnant, the tribe spends time, energy, and precious food feeding this woman, only to have the child with severe genetic defects which only puts more work on the tribe’s shoulders and weakens the genepool. This theory requires more thought but it could be a possibility.
Happy Birthday Jill!
Huh. I don’t know when my mother went through it, she wouldn’t remember anyway now.
She had a pregnancy at 45, but lost it.
So i have a wait to go.