Cambridge and Exeter - Menopause triggers studied

Women may undergo the menopause to reduce reproductive competition between generations in the same family, scientists have suggested. Teams at the University of Cambridge and the University of Exeter developed a mathematical model that suggested that older women should stop breeding when the next generation starts to have children. The results of the model were born out by the experience of "natural fertility" populations where women started to have children at 19 and stopped at 38.