Study: Men caused menopause by selecting younger mates

Menopause has bewildered evolutionary biologists, as females in virtually every other species remain fertile until they die. Now a team of Canadian researchers has shown that human menopause might be an unintended effect of men preferring to mate with younger women.

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 gave rise to menopause.

The prevailing "grandmother theory" held that women evolved to become infertile after a certain age to allow them to assist with rearing grandchildren, thus improving the survival of kin.

But Rama Singh, Richard Morton, and Jonathan Stone of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, say that theory does not add up from an evolutionary perspective.

"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.

Computer models suggest that competition among men of all ages for younger women left older females with a diminished chance of reproducing. Over time, human males stacked the Darwinian deck against continued fertility in older women.

"This theory says if women were reproducing all along, and there were no preference against older women, women would be reproducing like men are for their whole lives," Singh said.

Menopause, however, is not only lost fertility, but an increased risk of illness and death that arises with the hormonal changes. Singh says the new research, published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, suggests that if menopause developed over time, it could also be reversed.

The models aren't necessarily conclusive, however, as they assume male-driven sexual selection and an overwhelming male preference for younger women. The study also doesn't account for the dangers of pregnancy and childbirth in older women. Further, it isn't known if the only other species to undergo menopause -- captive chimps and certain whales -- lost their fertility due to male-driven selection.