Menopause: An Evolutionary Response To Men Chasing Younger Women?

Clearly the First Wives Club was onto something. They can’t tell us what to do, they can’t tell us what to say, but they may have dried us up at 50 because they started going for the young ladies. Cool.

Previously, scientists were of the mind that grandmother-aged women “gave up” their reproductive abilities to usher in that of their descendants’, but now Canadian researchers say that the male predilection for reproductive partners who skew younger is what actually caused the gene mutation that produced menopause for women 50 and over. Study author and Ontario biology professor Rama S. Singh (via the New York Daily News), says:

“Men don’t pick women with their eyes closed. They’re attracted to beautiful women who are more likely to be younger than older. When that happens, men are busy reproducing with younger women. That means women on the other end, older women, are less likely to reproduce.”

Eventually, thanks to evolution and whatnot, the women who simply weren’t reproducing became unable to reproduce. WHAT’S HAPPENING TO ME? I’M AFRAID.