At 12:09 PM 6/11/00 -0400, ankara wrote:
>Running out of eggs? PLEEEEASE........ !
[...]
>Me thinks you've been absorbing pharmaceutical sales schlock aka "clinical
>science." So your sources are questioned and requested.
I don't know how to read this. You're not denying that women exhaust their
egg supply, are you? Or that this has a cascade impact on the rest of
women's endocrinology? My summary was not wildly speculative; it was the
standard medical understanding. Cf., eg,
The Council of Affiliated Menopause Societies
(CAMS) of the International Menopause Society
(IMS) has developed standardized definitions for
menopause-related events. In October 1999, the
IMS voted to use these definitions worldwide (See
Figure 1).
Menopause (natural menopause)
Menopause (ie, “natural” or spontaneous
menopause) is defined by CAMS as the following:
“The permanent cessation of menstruation resulting
from the loss of ovarian follicular activity. Natural
menopause is recognized to have occurred after 12
consecutive months of amenorrhea, for which there
is no other obvious pathologic or physiologic cause.
Menopause occurs with the final menstrual period,
which is known with certainty only in retrospect a
year or more after the event. An adequate
independent biological marker for the event does not
exist.”
In the Western world, menopause occurs at a
median age of 51.4 years, with a Gaussian
distribution ranging from 40 to 58 years.
http://www.menopause.org/aboutm/facts.html
For the detailed sequelae of `loss of ovarian follicular activity', whether
in natural menopause, or some surgical/medical intervention such as
bilateral oophorectomy or total pelvic exenteration, I'd suggest the usual
search engine trek, or you might consult, eg, Roger Gosden, CHEATING TIME:
SCIENCE, SEX AND AGEING or John J. Medina, CLOCK OF AGES, both accessible
popular treatments.
Damien Broderick
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