Could Men Be Causing Menopause?

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - There is a really strange study being done at McMaster University in Canada. They asked the question, why is there menopause?

To answer it they literally created groups of virtual men and virtual women on the computer and gave them a wide array of genetic patterns and traits.

In groups where they programmed genes into the women that would produce infertility after a certain age, menopause occurred, and also programmed the men to prefer younger mates: the menopause genes were passed along, and menopause would appear in the population.

However, if they programmed the men to equally prefer women of all ages, those menopause genes never took hold in the population.

The theory is that physical changes can occur as a result of reproductive issues.