Mate Choice and the Origin of Menopause

The origin and evolution of menopause is understood poorly and explanations remain contentious. Virtually ignored among explanations is the effect that mate choice can exert on an evolving population. We designed and used a computational model and computer simulation to show that male mating preference for younger females in humans could have led to the accumulation of mutations deleterious to female fertility and thereby produced menopause. Our model demonstrates for the first time that neither an assumption of pre-existing diminished fertility in older women nor a requirement of benefits derived from older, non-reproducing women assisting younger women in rearing children is necessary to explain the origin of menopause.

PLOS Computational Biology