14.06.2013 change 14.06.2013

Researchers: birth of the first daughter may affect the onset of menopause

The age at which a woman goes through menopause may depend on when she gave birth to her first daughter. These are the conclusions of Dr. Andrzej Galbarczyk and Prof. Grażyna Jasieńska from the Jagiellonian University Medical College.

Results of the new study of researchers from Kraków have been published in the latest issue of HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology.

Researchers from the Jagiellonian University emphasize that menopause is still hides many secrets. Firstly, we still do not know exactly why some women enter menopause earlier than others. Secondly, the phenomenon of loss of ability to give birth long before the end of life is not found in females of any other species.

According to the so-called grandmother hypothesis, menopause occurred in the course of human evolution as a kind of adaptation. In the case of humans, birth of a child in old age is associated with a higher risk of child diseases and pregnancy complications. Thus, woman at a certain age may be better off helping their daughters raise their children instead of having another child of their own. Another hypothesis points out that a woman should stop reproduction in order not to compete for resources with her daughters.

Dr. Galbarczyk and Prof. Jasieńska, after surveying nearly a thousand Polish women after menopause - residents of both rural and urban areas - were the first to show that the earlier a woman gave birth to her first daughter, the earlier she entered natural menopause. This was regardless of whether the daughter was a first or subsequent child. There was, however, no apparent link between the age giving first birth or the birth of first son and the age of menopause.

"The observed phenomenon can be called a type of +contract+ between a mother and a daughter" - told PAP Dr Galbarczyk. He explained that a woman who has a daughter early, gains her invaluable assistance in caring for next children. However, when daughter has her own children, she will expect her mother to give up her own reproduction and help in raising grandchildren.

"The woman who gives birth to her first daughter earlier not only earlier takes a conscious decision not to have children, she may also lose the physiological reproductive ability" - added Prof. Jasieńska.

Dr. Andrzej Galbarczyk and Prof. Grażyna Jasieńska work in the Department of Health and Environment, Institute of Public Health of the Jagiellonian University Medical College in Kraków, both are associated with the Foundation Salus Publica, non-governmental non-profit organization that finances scientific research. The Kraków anthropologists have been conducting research into various aspects of female reproduction for years.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland, Szymon Łucyk

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