Study: Menopause prevents competition with daughter-in-law

PHOTO | FILE Researchers say mothers-in-law stop giving birth when sons begin.

What you need to know:

  • Researchers argue that menopause, which in some women can be quite uncomfortable, comes at a time when one’s sons are just about to get their own children
  • According to a study published in the Ecology Letters journal last Saturday, when a grandmother had a baby later in life and at the same time as her daughter-in-law, both newborns were 50 per cent less likely to survive to adulthood
  • Researchers from the University of Sheffield and Turku University in Finland say a child born to families with a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law reproducing simultaneously was twice as likely to die before reaching the age of 15
  • Surprisingly, this is not the case if the mother and her own biological daughter are giving birth at the same time, suggesting that related women breed co-operatively while unrelated women breed querulously

Mothers may, after all, have a good reason for hating their daughters-in-law who, it now emerges, may be responsible for some of the older women’s health problems.

It seems that nature in its wisdom decided to have women stop giving birth in middle age and enter menopause, to protect the wellbeing of their daughters-in-law’s children.

For this, daughters-in-law should be grateful for menopause, at least before they also get there.

Researchers argue that menopause, which in some women can be quite uncomfortable, comes at a time when one’s sons are just about to get their own children.

They argue that if the older woman continues to have children there may be competition for food and other resources for the two sets of children.

The older woman’s children are likely to win in such competition, but research shows both set of children would be losers.

According to a study published in the Ecology Letters journal last Saturday, when a grandmother had a baby later in life and at the same time as her daughter-in-law, both newborns were 50 per cent less likely to survive to adulthood.

Researchers from the University of Sheffield and Turku University in Finland say a child born to families with a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law reproducing simultaneously was twice as likely to die before reaching the age of 15.

Unrelated women

Surprisingly, this is not the case if the mother and her own biological daughter are giving birth at the same time, suggesting that related women breed co-operatively while unrelated women breed querulously.

However, Prof Catherine Gachutha, a psychologist counsellor at Maranatha College of Professional Studies in Nairobi, says this is a most controversial hypothesis.

If nature created menopause to reduce conflict between in-laws, then it did not succeed much because the condition can also be cause of irritability.

“Menopause may destabilise the woman’s emotional balance and some may become more querulous and angry, emotions not necessarily targeted at daughters-in-law alone,” says Prof Gachutha.

But if it was to give the grandmother a chance to help new women take care of the children and also reduce competition, Prof Gachutha says this would be a new ball game.

A social worker, Ms Mary Gebeye, argues that the reasons women stop giving birth while still relatively young may be many but it is important to note that carrying pregnancy and giving birth is a demanding engagement that takes a heavy toll on a woman’s health which would be worse in older women.

Dr Agnes Zani, a sociology lecturer at the University of Nairobi, sees little relationship between menopause and scratchy in-laws relationships.

Other motives

“Mothers and daughters-in-law conflicts vary a lot, first because there is always suspicion about the mothers and children; the mother tends to think the daughter-in-law has other motives than love,” says Dr Zani.

The comprehensive study which analysed 200-years’ worth of data for a period before the advent of modern contraception or healthcare differs with others which argue that women, unlike men, stop producing in middle age to take care of their grandchildren.

Talking to British newspaper the Daily Mail, one of the researchers, Dr Virpi Lummaa, said although family roles have changed, many grandmothers play a vital role in caring for their grandchildren.

“It is interesting that even today, mothers rarely choose to have children at the same time as their offspring: even if they have not yet been through the menopause,” Dr Lummaa said.