Killer Whales Go Through Menopause Too.
- Sep 14, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 20, 2023
By Stacy Gaucys
(Along with 4 other species of whales with teeth.... but that is it!)
If you have gone through menopause or are starting to go through it (peri menopause), then you clearly know it's not just when your period stops and you can't reproduce any longer. The stopping of your period is the best part of menopause. Mentally not having the ability to reproduce may be hard to bear for some women, and easier for others. Not having the hormones it takes to do either is the greatest challenge of all!
Did you know that only 5 species of animals go through menopause? Four of these mammals are whales (killer whales are one species) and the other is HUMANS. We are the only land animals that stop producing offspring and go through menopause. All five animal species (including us) live way beyond the years of reproduction. But why? Isn't reproduction our biological purpose? If we lose this reproductive purpose, is there a need for post menopausal women to keep on living after our ability to reproduce stops?
The answer is yes.
Here are my thoughts...
Grandmothers are essential in raising and guiding their offspring's calves in a killer whale pod. The female elders continually teach the younger generations the ways of the water. We do the same. Young mothers look to their mothers for guidance and help. If grandmothers were having babies when their daughters or sons were having babies, this could not be possible.
Human babies are extremely vulnerable at birth. We are not like a baby giraffe that can just get up after dropping 6 feet from their mothers and walk it off. A human baby often takes more than a year to walk, eat on their own, let alone actually take care of themselves without help. The size of the human head has evolutionarily gotten so large that we have to birth our babies in this vulnerable state in order to get them out. This takes an enormous amount of constant care....(if you have babies, or have been around babies, you know).
To grow one special human literally "takes a village". In Paleolithic times, we lived in that village. Today we live separate lives away from our children and their children. In some cases, the grandmothers today are lucky enough to live close by and have grandchildren visits. As in different pods of Killer whales that resemble the same pattern of living separately , it would stand to reason that human women and these pods of whales (Bigg's killer whales) would not lose their ability to reproduce if their children flew the coop and had babies apart from them. Maybe it is the extreme amount of effort it takes to raise just one human baby, and that the thought of running around after a child at age 50 is enough to squash any drive to have more. Or maybe evolution hasn't quite caught up to the fact that we are not living in "the village", and we quite possibly might be able to reproduce longer in the future (and not go through menopause). ???
As for now, I know this... Looking at my wonderful grandmother friends, I see and actually feel their bond they have with their grandbabies. If you are a grandmother now, you may know and feel that the bond you have with your offspring's offspring is something magical. Intrinsically, as a human woman, you have an innate drive to help boost survival and help guide your children and their children for their best possible outcome. THIS is our evolutionary reason why we, as human women, are alive 30-40 years post reproduction. It is truly a beautiful thing. So be proud of the menopause time in your life, weather it is on the horizon or you are living it...YOU have purpose.
In humans, menopause is categorically thought about as a symptoms rather than the inability to reproduce. Do killer whales have symptoms when experiencing menopause? Orcas are highly studied , and I have not found any studies or evidence of this yet, to date, that orcas go through "a hard time" during menopause. My theory? Killer whales are living, behaving, and eating according to how they are supposed to live. They eat and move to promote optimal health naturally and intrinsically, according to the animal species they are. We, unfortunately, do not!
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