Researchers found older females experienced changes in hormones, similar to female humans entering menopause. The timing was also similar.
By Kasha Patel, The Washington PostA chimpanzee, named Marlene by researchers, whose data was used in the Ngogo study. The study found that menopause and long post-reproductive lifespans are not unique to humans.
“Nobody would have assumed that was something that would ever be observed with chimps,” said Brian Wood, an author of the study. “Now we have a sense of the kinds of ecological conditions and social conditions that are necessary for it to emerge.” Garbo, featured in the Netflix series, is the oldest living chimpanzee in the community now, but two females have reached the age of 69 in the past. Ma Rainey, who is around the age of 63, lives in the community with her son, Wes. Another female named Sutherland, 61, also is around.
They also examined urine samples, collecting them from leaves or catching them on plastic sheets, from 66 females at different reproductive stages. They found that older female chimps experienced changes in hormones such as gonadotropins, estrogens and progestins, similar to female humans entering menopause. The timing of these hormone changes was also similar to humans, gradually declining after 30 until shutting off around 50.
In humans, one leading theory is that older females stop having children so they can help raise their children’s offspring, known as the “grandmother hypothesis.” But that’s not the case for chimps because daughters move away from their mothers and essentially never see one another again. The mother could help her son raise offspring, but Even so, the uncanny similarity could shed light on how menopause evolved in humans.
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