BBC News, Caroline
Parkinson, Health editor, 14 June 2013
Related
Stories
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| Younger women 'chosen over older ones' |
Evolutionary
geneticists from Canada's McMaster University say men's tendency to choose
younger mates meant fertility became pointless for older women.
In PLOS Computational Biology, they say this eventually led to the menopause.
But a UK
expert said that was the "wrong way round" and men chose younger
women because older women were less fertile.
'Preferential
mating'
Researchers
have long been puzzled as to why it appears that human are the only species
where females cannot reproduce throughout their lives.
Previous
theories had proposed a "grandmother effect". This suggests that
women lose their fertility at an age where they might not live to see a child
grow, and instead are available to care for younger women's children.
The
menopause was therefore seen as the block to older women from continuing to
reproduce.
But this
latest theory suggests things work the other way around, and that it is the
lack of reproduction that has given rise to menopause.
Using
computer modelling, the team from McMaster's concluded "preferential
mating" was the evolutionary answer - men of all ages choosing younger
women as partners.
That meant
there was "no purpose" in older women continuing to be fertile.
Prof Rama
Singh, an evolutionary geneticist who led the study, said men choosing younger
mates were "stacking the odds" against continued fertility.
He told the
BBC: "There is evidence in human history; there was always a preference
for younger women."
Prof Singh
stressed they were looking at human development many thousands of years ago -
rather than current social patterns,
'Evolved
response'
In the UK,
the average age for women to go through the menopause is now 52 even though the
average woman goes on to live for another 30 years.
Prof Singh
said this extended longevity - plus later childbirth - could potentially alter
the timing of the menopause, over a significant period of time.
"The
social system is changing. There are women who are starting families later, because
of education or a career."
He
suggested this trend would mean those women would have a later menopause, and
those genes would be passed on to their daughters "with the possibility of
menopausal age being delayed".
However Dr
Maxwell Burton-Chellew, an evolutionary biologist in the department of zoology
at the University of Oxford, challenged the theory.
"The
authors argue that the menopause exists in humans because males have a strong
preference for younger females.
"However,
this is probably the wrong way round - the human male preference for younger
females is likely to be because older females are less fertile.
"I
think it makes more sense to see the human male preference for younger females
largely as an evolved response to the menopause, and to assume that ancestral
males would have been wise to mate with any females that could produce
offspring."
He added:
"Evolutionarily-speaking, older females faced an interesting 'choice':
have a child that may not reach adulthood before your own death, or stop
reproducing and instead focus on helping your younger relatives
reproduce."
 |
Patrons
have drinks at the Harry's Bar, October 27, 2002,
Berlin (AFP/File, Thomas
Grabka)
|
Question:
Dear Lee/Kryon: In my psychotherapy practice, I am specializing in menopause
and other women's life transition issues. I am trying to frame menopause as a
step within the spiritual evolutionary process, perhaps even part of the female
response to ascension. Can you help me with an explanation of what the process
of menses means for my clients? And how is it that females seem to undergo this
"reverse puberty" process in a more dramatic way than men do?
Answer:
Again we say to you that you must remove the biological from the spiritual.
Look at what the body does. It is geared to stop the engine of procreation so
that the female will not be harmed. That's why it occurs at all. It is an
engine of appropriateness related to age. It's also an old paradigm, however,
since we teach that you can extend your life-span, and that also means bearing
children longer with safety, if that is part of your life plan.
For a male,
the evolutionary process is one where, since he does not give birth, his
biology is not one that goes through anything in the birth process. Therefore
age is unimportant to his health when it comes to producing the seeds, which he
can do almost until death.
So the body
is protecting the females from undue stress, and even from premature death -
going through childbirth when the chemistry is not up to it. This should be
seen as a blessing, and one that is honored.
However,
now we tell you something that is more along the lines of your question. In
females, sometimes the process isn't stopped for biological reasons at all, but
spiritual ones! In males, sometimes the hormones of desire and performance are
also seemingly prematurely stopped. Ever wonder why this might happen?
The reason?
Sometimes shamans need to have some of the common distractions of earth
eliminated so that their concentration can be focused more clearly on spiritual
matters. Don't read anything into this. It's different for every Human Being,
so there is no generality here. But you should know that this is often part of
the process of "relief from the distraction of things that are no longer
needed," given for spiritual enlightenment. Not for all, but for many.
This is often why you perceive elders to be wiser. They don't have that set of
very complex and demanding chemicals surging through their body, either giving
them pain with each cycle, or the pain of desire without fulfillment, which has
its own attributes of psychological frustration and distraction.
For the
females: Think of these things as all related. What is it you need? Do you give
permission for it? Is it appropriate in your contract? Then when it comes, talk
to your cellular structure and replace the chemistry that needs to be there for
your energy, and say good-bye to that which is leaving. Give ceremony around
it. You may do all of this naturally, talking to your cells. They will respond,
and create what is missing.
This is the
new Human Being, taking control of their bodies, and speaking directly to their
cells. Creating tissue and chemistry naturally, since the cellular structure of
your body is "listening" to what you need, and is far more capable
than any scientist has ever told you.
And this is
the truth.
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