Are you kidding me?

So I've started this 'Google alert' thing where you can actively follow any subject of interest, and in my case right now, it's menopause… initially to see what other people are writing on the subject, and to make some connections that might be of interest to me or to others reading this blog.

I've been notified three times weekly of many different types of sites and blogs, mostly medical in nature, but a few others by women who are writing through this phase of life, just like me. I usually glance over the extensive list and then follow one or two leads to see where they take me. I'm usually inspired by the name of the site or blog, then by the tone of the first line provided by 'Google alert'.

This morning I just got in from an invigorating walk with a friend and our two dogs. We walked and talked for an hour… the time evaporated as we discussed many topics like parenting and writing and exercise. It was really great fodder for the rest of the day of alone time doing the things that need doing in my home. (all is going well with the 5 kids and 2 dogs… although one 'guest' consumed four heaping bowls of honey nut cheerios at breakfast… not that I'm counting!)

Anyway, before I got to my domestic chores, I checked my emails and my 'Google alerts' and then followed one posting with an interesting name and ended up here. Now I'm just beginning to understand a little about the complex physical changes that take place during menopause… the hormone changes that lead to physical experiences that I've been enjoying for about a year and a half. I don't have a huge desire to know a lot… I'm just too lazy to wrap my head around too many scientific facts. Sorry.

But this posting has taken quite a different approach than any I've read so far… and it's quite a concept (or series of theories) to wrap my head around this morning. I had no idea that menopause was an example of evolution tied into the natural selection process… did you? Apparently we as women have made adaptations to our reproductive cycle to allow us to be better available to our children and our grandchildren as care givers, or, alternately, to enjoy better sex in our old age without fear of unwanted pregnancy, and, as if that wasn't enough, that our menopause may actually be 'a mistake'. All due to this damning proof that as humans, our fertility shuts down while we are still capable of having children. Apparently this doesn't happen with any creature in the animal kingdom. We humans are unique (big clue here)

Sorry for sounding snide, but I don't know of many women who would ever choose to evolve into the hot flashing, night waking, hormonally imbalanced, emotionally strung out versions of ourselves ON PURPOSE… even if it is to be a better mother, grandmother or have better sex! Sex is the last thing on the minds of most menopausal women!

As far as the mistake part… whose mistake would that be? One can't have an evolutionary discussion and then pull some loose theology into it at the end to take the blame, can one? Or, was it an evolutionary mistake… I don't know because I don't pretend to be an expert on this at all (yet something else I'm not an expert on). So you can certainly fault me for spouting off on this without having all the facts. But hey, I'm menopausal!

Now the author of this blog is not taking personal responsibility for authoring any of these theories, just posting them… so do they believe any of this to be true? I don't know. All I'm saying is it's all pretty far fetched, in my opinion, and it makes me wonder who authored those theories in the first place, and were their wives involved in the editing process?

Scratching my head on this one,

Lesley-Anne