Comments on: Why do human females have menopause? http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/02/09/why-do-human-females-have-menopause/ Knowledge is Scrumptious Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:46:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Anonymous http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/02/09/why-do-human-females-have-menopause/comment-page-1/#comment-394 Anonymous Sun, 11 Feb 2007 17:07:50 +0000 http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/02/09/why-do-human-females-have-menopause/#comment-394 Thanks Archana. Don't know why it is difficult, but my guess is that to track animals in the wild over a long period of time must not be easy. Thanks Archana. Don’t know why it is difficult, but my guess is that to track animals in the wild over a long period of time must not be easy.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/02/09/why-do-human-females-have-menopause/comment-page-1/#comment-393 Anonymous Sat, 10 Feb 2007 11:46:00 +0000 http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/02/09/why-do-human-females-have-menopause/#comment-393 Animals living past their reproductive age would be a fairly obvious thing to observe, I thought. Definitely agree, we are yet discover so many things, we can't be asking why we did not discover them yet. Animals living past their reproductive age would be a fairly obvious thing to observe, I thought.

Definitely agree, we are yet discover so many things, we can’t be asking why we did not discover them yet.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/02/09/why-do-human-females-have-menopause/comment-page-1/#comment-392 Anonymous Sat, 10 Feb 2007 11:26:42 +0000 http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/02/09/why-do-human-females-have-menopause/#comment-392 That is right Archana. Post-menopausal longevity is an important one. But the crux of the theory is what is popularly called "grandmother hypothesis" that is menopause is their for women to take care of their children and grand children. This also means that women will hang around with the family post menopause to take care of the family. The problem is - Gorillas which also have menopause and have sufficient post-menopausal longevity actually leave their family groups. So then the grandmother hypothesis doesn't apply to Gorillas. As to why scientists didn't observe it, there are a variety of reasons including funding for research and hot research interests. This may not have been a hot field for focused research. Also, you could ask the same question of so many XYZ findings that come every day - why are the scientists finding this XYZ thing now? Don't know how you answer that except that we don't know a lot of stuff about the universe and we will find new stuff every day for the foreseeable future and still no develop a complete understanding. That is right Archana. Post-menopausal longevity is an important one. But the crux of the theory is what is popularly called “grandmother hypothesis” that is menopause is their for women to take care of their children and grand children. This also means that women will hang around with the family post menopause to take care of the family. The problem is – Gorillas which also have menopause and have sufficient post-menopausal longevity actually leave their family groups. So then the grandmother hypothesis doesn’t apply to Gorillas.

As to why scientists didn’t observe it, there are a variety of reasons including funding for research and hot research interests. This may not have been a hot field for focused research. Also, you could ask the same question of so many XYZ findings that come every day – why are the scientists finding this XYZ thing now? Don’t know how you answer that except that we don’t know a lot of stuff about the universe and we will find new stuff every day for the foreseeable future and still no develop a complete understanding.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/02/09/why-do-human-females-have-menopause/comment-page-1/#comment-391 Anonymous Sat, 10 Feb 2007 09:03:43 +0000 http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/02/09/why-do-human-females-have-menopause/#comment-391 I understand that Sukumar. I was wondering about the length of time they survive after Menopause. Jared Diamond also makes the point they need to be alive for "significant fraction of their life spans after the end of their fertility". If these other animals underwent menopause and lived long enough to be noticeable, how come most scientist are discovering it only now? I understand that Sukumar. I was wondering about the length of time they survive after Menopause. Jared Diamond also makes the point they need to be alive for “significant fraction of their life spans after the end of their fertility”. If these other animals underwent menopause and lived long enough to be noticeable, how come most scientist are discovering it only now?

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/02/09/why-do-human-females-have-menopause/comment-page-1/#comment-390 Anonymous Sat, 10 Feb 2007 07:17:54 +0000 http://www.sastwingees.org/2007/02/09/why-do-human-females-have-menopause/#comment-390 That is right Archana. As i pointed out, jared diamond does make a powerful argument. But then as i also pointed out, what explains Guppies and other animals listed showing menopause. These are not the occasional sterile animals that Jared Diamond dismissively says but clear cases of animal menopause. I thought i was bought into Diamond's argument but then this dismissiveness on sterile animals drove me to research this further and i chanced upon the Guppy study report. So I can only reasonably conclude that human menopause is just another animal menopause that some animals have for no apparent reason other than longevity of life or some other reason to be figured out. It is not some special human thing. That is right Archana. As i pointed out, jared diamond does make a powerful argument. But then as i also pointed out, what explains Guppies and other animals listed showing menopause. These are not the occasional sterile animals that Jared Diamond dismissively says but clear cases of animal menopause. I thought i was bought into Diamond’s argument but then this dismissiveness on sterile animals drove me to research this further and i chanced upon the Guppy study report. So I can only reasonably conclude that human menopause is just another animal menopause that some animals have for no apparent reason other than longevity of life or some other reason to be figured out. It is not some special human thing.

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