In the 21st century, educated women know to expect menopause just as girls are taught to prepare for menstruation. However, while there has been a recent movement to destigmatise menstruation and to discuss it as a normal stage of the human life course, the same is not quite true of menopause. Rather, menopause has often been medicalised—classed as a deficiency syndrome—and women anticipate dire symptoms as they speed towards bodily decline and mortality. Prevailing thought remains that menopause is an unfortunate artefact of our lengthened lives. But is this transition, in fact, an adaptation to our unique human life history?

中文翻译：

---

更年期：根本适应或缺乏综合症？

在21世纪，受过教育的妇女知道会更年期，就像女孩被教导要为月经作准备一样。然而，尽管最近出现了对月经进行流氓化并将其讨论为人类生活正常阶段的运动，但绝经并非如此。相反，更年期通常已经被医学化（被称为缺乏综合症），并且妇女在加速身体衰退和死亡的过程中预料到了可怕的症状。人们普遍认为，更年期是我们延长寿命的不幸产物。但是，实际上，这种转变是否适应了我们独特的人类生活史？