Why does nature put women through the menopause?

A baby, although destined to have the mental ability and dexterity that is greatly superior to any other species, is delivered into this world at a relatively early stage of development and is totally reliant on parental care. Nature does not allow a child to bring a baby into the world and similarly avoids a baby having a mother who is beyond middle age. During reproductive years, most of the oestrogen (female hormone -Q 2.9) produced in your body comes from the cells in your ovaries that surround eggs reaching maturity. The ovarian hormones have to be linked to the development of eggs so that the required cyclical changes of the endometrium (lining of the womb; Figure 2.3) are synchronised appropriately in preparation for a possible pregnancy.

From the menopause onwards, the ovaries have run out of eggs and, as a result, the amount of oestrogen in the blood falls. Nature has not decreed that women should suffer from oestrogen deficiency following the menopause: it is simply that nature's way of providing oestrogen is to link it to egg development. Inevitably the menopause heralds the arrival of a naturally induced sex-hormone deficiency state in otherwise healthy women.

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