Belief in a religious idea regarding menstruation is causing a continuous and profound damage to women's bodies. This damage is being accumulated and eventually leads to what is mistakenly called "The Menopause". If we examine apes in their natural environment (unlike zoos and research labs) we will see that menopause is not common among females of other primates. It is unusual for researchers to encounter chimpanzees and gorillas that have reached menopause and survived many years beyond it. On the other hand, in human society, "Menopause" is known as a universal phenomenon, experienced by all women.
It is commonly thought today that menopause is caused by a natural degeneration of the ovaries, and doctors can calculate the timing of the menopause in woman's body using two factors:
The first factor is the eggs losing rate during menstruations.
The female ovary contains a large number of microscopic eggs, their amount ranges between million to a few hundred thousands of eggs, and is determined during the female's embryonic stage in the womb. Women start ovulating as they reach puberty. Ovulation occurs in each of the ovaries alternately, during ovulation a number of eggs develop in the ovary, preparing for ovulation.
Later, those eggs die and only one egg matures, therefore there is only one embryo in most pregnancies. This continuous monthly process causes a western woman to go through four to five hundred ovulations before she reaches the limit of her ability to ovulate.
The second factor is the accumulated damage of nonstop deliveries, year after year, common in the third world. The succession of pregnancies is a burden for the mother's body and depletes its resources. At the end of such succession of pregnancies a critical point is reached, when a mother can no longer recuperate from the damages of the previous pregnancies, and her fertility is over. Multiplicity pregnancies damage the babies as well. They suffer poor immune system and deficiency of the growth and sex hormones.
If we cancel the accumulating influence of these two factors, we will theoretically be able to prevent women's menopause.
We know that in our past life as Hunters-gatherers, most women gave birth only once in 4 -5 years. 1
If we shall take the life expectancy acceptable today (about seventy years) and divide it by the four years between the different menstruation cycles (starting from the middle teens) we will get a careful estimate of about thirty menstruation cycles, that is less than one tenth a western woman experiences in her lifetime.
Modern technology enables us to use new contraceptives which stop the activity of the female reproductive system, until the time comes and the woman wants to become a mother.
Such a protection program might save infertility treatments (that are common nowadays) and enable women to have babies whenever they want, without being bothered by their age.
It is also possible that this way we will be able to prevent (even in the near future) all the negative physical side effects caused by menopause.
1 - The explanation regarding the low fertility phenomenon, common in women living in hunters-collectors groups appears further in this page.
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