London: Women may evolve out of the menopause and bear children into their fifties and beyond, an Indian-origin genetics expert has claimed.
Dr Aarathi Prasad speaking at the Hay Festival in UK, said that since there were no longer any benefits associated with the menopause, it was now "not normal for nature".
According to the expert, menopause dated from a time when generations of women were competing over scarce resources and it was not ideal for them all to be bearing children at the same time.
But in an age when resources are plentiful, life expectancies are longer and women remain healthier for longer, it was no longer necessary, she said.
"The mood of scientists working on this and looking to the future is we will either technologically or scientifically evolve out of the menopause," she said.
"It is a health risk potentially and it is a real inescapable block on reproduction for one half of us - the women, but not the men. It is something that will probably be overcome," she added.
"When menopause evolved, women probably died ten years before it happened, it hit in your 50s, on average," she said.
"If you`re looking at a future where women are going to live to 100, that`s half your life when the rest of your body functions perfectly well and your ovaries don`t.
"And it`s not just reproduction. The menopause brings an increased risk of heart disease and osteoporosis.
"What we think is normal is not normal for nature. If it is something not in all mammals, is it something necessary or beneficial for us? I do not see any benefits," she said.
PTI
