研究发现，减少夫妻生活可能会引发更年期提前

Women who have sex at least once per month are less likely to enter early menopause compared to those who have sex less frequently, according to a new study, which followed nearly 3,000 US women for a decade.

一项对近3000名美国女性进行了长达10年的跟踪调查的最新研究显示，与性生活频率较低的女性相比，每月至少性生活一次的女性进入更年期的可能性较小。

The results, which were published in Royal Society Open Science, also dispelled previous findings that being married to a male, or being exposed to male pheromones, influenced the timing of menopause, which the authors say is largely linked to genetics.

该研究结果发表在《英国皇家学会开放科学》杂志上，同时也推翻了此前的研究结果，即与男性结婚或接触男性信息素会影响绝经期的时间，作者称这在很大程度上与基因有关。

“We did not replicate the findings from previous research showing that simply being married is associated with a later ANM (age of natural menopause), most likely owing to the variable cultural and temporal settings of previous studies,” the authors wrote. “However, we did demonstrate that increased sexual frequency during the pre- and peri-menopause decreased the risk of experiencing menopause.”

作者写道:“我们并没有重复先前的研究结果，即简单的结婚与较晚的ANM(自然绝经年龄)有关，这很可能是由于先前研究的不同文化和时间背景造成的。”“然而，我们确实证明了绝经前和绝经期前后性生活频率的增加可以降低绝经期风险。”

The authors surmised that the relationship is likely the result of an “adaptive trade-off relative to the likelihood of pregnancy when approaching menopause,” but noted that there is no behavioral intervention that will prevent a woman from inevitably entering menopause.

作者推测，这种关系可能是“接近更年期时怀孕可能性的适应性权衡”的结果，但指出，没有任何行为干预可以防止女性不可避免地进入更年期。

Speaking to Health.com, the lead study author, Megan Arnot, Ph.D., explained that if a woman is not having sex, there is no likelihood of pregnancy, meaning the body may seek to expend its energy elsewhere.

在接受Health.com网站采访时，该研究的主要作者梅根·阿诺特博士解释说，如果一个女人没有性生活，她就不可能怀孕，这意味着她的身体可能会把能量消耗到别处。

“It might be that there’s a trade-off between continued ovulation and stopping,” she told Health.com. “So there may be a point in life where it’s better off to stop ovulating and invest your energy elsewhere if you’re not going to have a baby (because you’re not having sex).”

“这可能是持续排卵和停止排卵之间的权衡，”她告诉Health.com。“所以在生活中，如果你不想要孩子(因为你没有性生活)，那么最好停止排卵，把精力投入到其他事情上。”

The women involved in the study were on average 45 years old at the start, and had reported frequency and type of sex to researchers. During the 10-year study period, 45 percent of women had experienced a natural menopause at an average age of 52.

参与研究的女性开始时平均年龄为45岁，并向研究人员报告过性生活的频率和类型。在10年的研究期间，45%的女性在平均52岁时经历了自然绝经。

Those who reported having sex weekly were found to be 28 percent less likely to experience menopause than women who had sex less than monthly.

那些每周一次的女性绝经的可能性比那些每月少于一次的女性低28%。

“If we interpret these results from a fitness-maximizing framework, it may be the physical cues of sex signal to the body that there is a possibility of becoming pregnant, and therefore an adaptive trade-off may occur between continued energetic investment and reproductive cessation,” the authors noted.

“如果我们从健康最大化的框架来解释这些结果，这可能是性信号的身体暗示，身体有可能怀孕，因此在持续的精力投入和生殖停止之间可能会出现适应性的权衡。”作者指出。