Current ecology, not ancestral dispersal patterns, influences menopause symptom severity.

Yuping Yang,Megan Arnot,Ruth Mace

doi:10.1002/ece3.5705

Yuping Yang, Megan Arnot + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5705

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Abstract

All human females who reach midlife experience menopause, however, it is currently unclear why women experience this period of infertility, and why it is accompanied by many unpleasant symptoms. Using primary data from four ethnic groups in China, we test an existing theory that age of menopause and its symptoms are the result of intragenomic conflict between maternally and paternally inherited genes, with the outcome of such conflict predicted to be contingent on the ancestral postmarital residence pattern of the female (Úbeda, Ohtsuki, & Gardner, Ecology Letters, 17, 2014, 165). The model predicts that being ancestrally patrilocal results in less intragenomic conflict, causing a shorter, less symptomatic perimenopause that terminates in a later menopause. Our findings show no support for this hypothesis and suggest current, rather than ancestral, residence patterns better predict aspects of the menopausal transition. Furthermore, current patrilocality when compared to duolocality is associated with more severe menopause symptoms, which may be due to sexual, rather than intragenomic, conflict.Open Research Badges This article has earned an Open Data Badge for making publicly available the digitally‐shareable data necessary to reproduce the reported results. The data is available at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.27s8k0p.

Highlights

Dispersal patterns structure the relatedness of individuals to the group, which can influence patterns of cooperation and conflict (Johnstone & Cant, 2010)
The human female life history is char‐ acterized by menopause, which is an extended period of infertility that usually occurs around the age of 50
Under the model of intragenomic conflict, it is predicted that, in pop‐ ulations where there is a greater degree of female dispersal, there should be a shorter, less symptomatic perimenopause that termi‐ nates in a later menopause

Summary

| INTRODUCTION

Dispersal patterns structure the relatedness of individuals to the group, which can influence patterns of cooperation and conflict (Johnstone & Cant, 2010). Women of Japanese descent in the USA typically report less vasomotor symptoms (e.g., hot flashes) and a later ANM, whereas African American women experience the con‐ verse (Avis, Stellato, et al, 2001; Avis et al, 2005; Gold et al, 2001, 2000; Im, 2009) Both groups would have experienced a de‐ gree of admixture in their past, and as noted by Úbeda et al (2014), good evidence on the ancestral ecologies of these populations is lacking. The intragenomic conflict hy‐ pothesis predicts that the former would be most important, whereas if conditions specific to current residence pattern (e.g., different degrees of sexual and social conflict between patrilocal and duo‐ local groups (Leonetti, Nath, & Hemam, 2007)) are more important, menopause symptoms may be more related to current living arrangements

| MATERIAL AND METHODS

Findings

| DISCUSSION