• Question: what causes menopause?

    Asked by sebisepic to Jen, Jill, Mel, Phil, Stef on 18 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Melissa Brereton

      Melissa Brereton answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      This happens when women stop producing the hormone oestrogen and they stop releasing an egg every month which can be fertilised by sperm

    • Photo: Phil Rice

      Phil Rice answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      @sebisepic. I thnk I have answered this but it has to do with child rearing. An adult female loses her fertility so that she can help look after her grandchildren when her children reproduce. I believe we are the only primates to do this.

    • Photo: Stefan Piatek

      Stefan Piatek answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      Ah seb, I seem to remember answering this one in the chat too, but melissa is spot on as well as phil for his evolutionary reasoning for having it as a process in the first place.

      There are interesting things where there are some birds that never have children but instead keep on helping raising other bird’s chicks – this is called alturism. Now it’s basically helping another individual without benefit to yourself, but there’s an idea that you’re helping something that has a lot of similar genes to you, so it’s like helping your cousin rather than your brother – it’s still pretty close and helps your species!

Comments