The patriarch hypothesis - An alternative explanation of menopause

Menopause is puzzling because life-history theory predicts there should be no selection for outliving one's reproductive capacity. Adaptive explanatio ns of menopause offered thus far turn on women's long-term investment in of fspring and grandoffspring, all variations on the grandmother hypothesis. H ere, I offer a very different explanation. The patriarch hypothesis propose s that once males became capable of maintaining high status and reproductiv e access beyond their peak physical condition, selection favored the extens ion of maximum life span in males. Because the relevant genes were not on t he Y chromosome, life span increased in females as well. However, the femal e reproductive span was constrained by the depletion of viable oocytes, whi ch resulted in menopause.