Mixed blessings for middle-aged mothers
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TL;DR
It is not possible to argue that “the driving selective force of human lifespan is maximizing the period of time during which women can bear children” without a comparison of the total number of offspring produced (lifetime repro- duction, LR) of the two groups of women.
Abstract
There are several explanations for the evolution of human longevity and senescence1,2, a recent example being the suggestion by Perls et al.3 of a relationship between longevity in women and the age at which they bore children. Perls et al. showed that women surviving to at least age 100 were four times more likely to have had children while in their 40s than women who survived to age 73. But it is not possible to argue from these data that “the driving selective force of human lifespan is maximizing the period of time during which women can bear children” without a comparison of the total number of offspring produced (lifetime repro- duction, LR) of the two groups of women.