Menopause historical perspective

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Rahmah Al-Edresi, M.D.[2]

Overview

In 1821, a French physician named the cessation of the menstrual cycle as a term of menopause.The medical interest in menopause started in the mid-19th century, and was treated by estrogen replacement therapy in the 1970s. The Grandmother hypothesis considers that the menopause may have been selected for in human evolution. Unlike humans, other mammals rarely experience menopause, but some of the other few mammal species that experience menstrual cycles, such as rhesus monkeys and some cetaceans.

In the past, the studies on cessation of the menstrual cycle after 40 years of age in women were very rare, a French physician named the cessation of the menstrual cycle as a term of menopause in 1821.

The medical interest in menopause started in the mid-19th century and therefore knew the menopause symptoms because of deficiency of estrogen hormone and was treated of menopause symptoms by estrogen replacement therapy in the 1970s and had been developed in 1938.
International Menopause Society was founded in the 1970s and the first international conference on menopause was organized in Paris, France in 1976.
Overall, women in western countries viewed menopause negatively contrasted with the positive outlook of women in developing countries like India.^[1]

The Grandmother hypothesis considers that the menopause may have been selected for in human evolution, because later life infertility could have conferred an evolutionary advantage by allowing older women to spend more time helping with the survival of their existing children and grandchildren.

Unlike humans, other mammals rarely experience menopause, but it does exist in some of the other few mammal species that experience menstrual cycles, such as rhesus monkeys^[2] and some cetaceans.^[3]

However, menopause exists in some other animals, many of which do not have monthly menstruation in this case, the term means a natural end to fertility.^[4]

↑ Singh A, Kaur S, Walia I (2002). “A historical perspective on menopause and menopausal age”. Bull Indian Inst Hist Med Hyderabad. 32 (2): 121–35. PMID 15981376.
↑ Walker ML (1995). “Menopause in female rhesus monkeys”. Am J Primatol. 35: 59–71.
↑ McAuliffe K, Whitehead H (2005). “Eusociality, menopause and information in matrilineal whales”. Trends Ecol Evolution. 20: 650.
↑ Walker ML, Herndon JG (2008). “Menopause in nonhuman primates?”. Biol Reprod. 79 (3): 398–406. doi:10.1095/biolreprod.108.068536. PMC 2553520. PMID 18495681.