Repeat: Living Past Your Reproductive Years
Same as the last two years, I am not writing my blog right now because I need to navigate the twins returning to college. Unlike the last two years, I didn’t aim to rerun a post from the same date, years earlier. Instead, I used a random date generator, and then took the closest post to that date, which is why you may see posts about winter in the middle of the summer.
I scheduled these posts so the blog wouldn’t be empty, and I could have space to process my feelings. A cop-out, but forgive me. Having them go is really, really hard. I need mental space to feel what I am feeling, help the kids through the transition, and sit in the quiet for a moment on the other side.
How many female animals live beyond their reproductive years?
Which animals experience menopause?
Those were my Google searches after reading NPR’s story on the grandmother hypothesis. Because I had never given this fact consideration… at all:
Killer whales, Japanese aphids and Homo sapiens — they’re among the few organisms whose females live on long past the age of reproduction. Since the name of the evolutionary game is survival and reproduction, the phenomenon begs explanation — why live longer than you can reproduce?
Apparently “um” is not an answer.
1 comment
It was interesting to read the comments on the original post. I have not yet read “The Menopause Manifesto” by Dr. Jen Gunter — whom I generally love — but a fellow childless-not-by-choice woman did and said it gave her pause when Dr. Jen included this “grandmother” theory. And of course, we all know of a certain vice-president who has stated that the purpose of a post-menopausal female is to take care of grandchildren. :p So what about those of us who have no grandchildren (let alone children in the first place)?