![]() The women were asked to respond to several questions, including whether they had engaged in sex with their partner in the past six months, the frequency of sex including whether they engaged in sexual intercourse, oral sex, sexual touching or caressing in the last six months and whether they had engaged in self-stimulation in the past six months. On average they had two children, were mostly married or in a relationship (78%), and living with their partner (68%). Non-Hispanic Caucasian women were most represented in the sample (48%), and the majority of women were educated to above a high school level. The mean age at first interview was 45 years old. The research is based on data collected from 2,936 women, recruited as the baseline cohort for the SWAN study in 1996/1997. Given a pregnancy is unlikely due to a lack of sexual activity, then it would not be beneficial to allocate energy to a costly process, especially if there is the option to invest resources into existing kin. "The idea that women cease fertility in order to invest more time in their family is known as the Grandmother Hypothesis, which predicts that the menopause originally evolved in humans to reduce reproductive conflict between different generations of females, and allow women to increase their inclusive fitness through investing in their grandchildren."ĭuring ovulation, the woman's immune function is impaired, making the body more susceptible to disease. There may be a biological energetic trade-off between investing energy into ovulation and investing elsewhere, such as keeping active by looking after grandchildren. It's the largest, most diverse and most representative longitudinal cohort study available to research aspects of the menopause transition.įirst author on the study, PhD candidate Megan Arnot (UCL Anthropology), said: "The findings of our study suggest that if a woman is not having sex, and there is no chance of pregnancy, then the body 'chooses' not to invest in ovulation, as it would be pointless. ![]() The research, published in Royal Society Open Science, is based on data from the USA's Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Sexual activity includes sexual intercourse, oral sex, sexual touching and caressing or self-stimulation. The researchers observed that women, who reported engaging in sexual activity weekly, were 28% less likely to have experienced menopause at any given age than women who engaged in sexual activity less than monthly.
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