[Is the postmenopausal-age-at-death variable a fitness-maximizing reproductive strategy?]

On the basis of the complete 18th century vital statistics available for 811 women from Ostfriesland (Germany), an attempt is made to examine the relationship between the postmenopausal age at death and the reproductive behaviour (reproductive effort and reproductive management). Although reproductive activities appeared to have a basically life-shortening effect in the population under study, this was independent of the amount of reproductive effort. The positive correlation reported in the literature to exist between the number of (surviving) children and the age at death was confirmed in our analysis; and it can partly be explained by the interference of another relationship, i.e. between the age at the last parturition and longevity. This correlation is interpreted as an expression of fitness-maximizing reproductive management. To this belongs the idea that the existence of unmarried children, i.e. the sub-optimal social position of one's descendants, had a life-lengthening effect on the women investigated. Whereas the effects found are largely statistically significant, they are on the whole very minor, so that we may surmise that only a small part of the total variance of the postmenopausal age at death can be interpreted as an expression of an adaptive reproductive strategy.