Revision summary
Menopause is the permanent end of menses after follicular depletion. Oestrogen fall drives flush, bone, and some heart risk. Hawkes’s grandmother hypothesis reads long post-reproductive life as adaptive. Social impact includes household role and care work. Treat complications, not the event itself as a disease.
Model answer
Introduction
Menopause is the lasting end of menstruation, usually near fifty years. It is a human life-history event with somatic and social impact.
Body
Biology
- Ovarian follicles are depleted. Oestrogen falls. Cycles stop after twelve months without menses.
- Hot flushes, bone loss, and a rise in some cardiovascular risk follow in many women.
- Grandmother hypothesis work by Hawkes treats post-reproductive life as an evolved helping stage, not a defect.
Impact
- In India, menopause can shift household rank, diet taboos, and labour, as medical-anthropology studies of midlife show.
- HRT is a clinical option with trade-offs. Anthropology also records herbal and kin support.
- It is not a disease by definition. Pathology is osteoporosis, depression, or untreated bleeding, not the fact of stopping.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD M[Menopause] --> E[Oestrogen fall] E --> B[Bone flush heart] M --> G[Grandmother helping]
Conclusion
Menopause ends fertility and changes the endocrine profile. Impact is bone, heart, mood, and household role, with grandmothering as an evolutionary reading.
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