Wilbush J
Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Maturitas. 1993 May;16(3):157-62. doi: 10.1016/0378-5122(93)90061-l.
This call for a review of climacteric research, its present trends and methodologies, is not prompted so much by mounting criticism from many quarters as by personal disappointment. Despite increasing research we have not achieved the understanding which, not long ago, seemed so near: we have sadly failed in convincing women (and their medical advisers) we can help them and, worse, we have 'departmentalized' ourselves from the concurrent scourge of cancer of the breast. It is here suggested that some of these aims, indeed a greater understanding of the place of fertility in female life, may be achieved by a reexamination of biological baselines. It is proposed we look again at the evolutionary strategems protecting the young, enquire into ethological/sexual hominoid relationships and reevaluate the biorhythm of repeated pregnancies. It is especially the latter, culturally so unacceptable in societies in which women limit their families and menstruate, that offers new venues for research. For, once seriously considered, without bias, it may help in devising means by which we can retain our way of life, free of the dangers inseparable from avoidance of pregnancy and loss of the benefits of its hormones.
呼吁对更年期研究、其当前趋势和方法进行审视，并非主要是受到来自诸多方面越来越多的批评，而是源于个人的失望。尽管研究不断增加，但我们并未达成不久前似乎触手可及的那种理解：我们遗憾地未能说服女性（及其医疗顾问）相信我们能够帮助她们，更糟糕的是，我们已将自己与同时存在的乳腺癌祸害“部门化”开来。这里表明，通过重新审视生物学基线，有可能实现其中一些目标，即真正更深入地理解生育在女性生活中的地位。建议我们再次审视保护幼崽的进化策略，探究行为学/性方面的类人猿关系，并重新评估多次怀孕的生物节律。尤其后者，在女性限制家庭规模并经历月经的社会中，在文化上是如此难以接受，却为研究提供了新的途径。因为，一旦不带偏见地认真思考，它可能有助于设计出一些方法，使我们能够保持自己的生活方式，摆脱因避免怀孕以及失去孕期激素带来的益处而不可避免的危险。
