>And I think I read something about fertility occuring earlier for >mothers of multiples -- oh, no, right: that was menopause. Seriously. >We >mothers of naturally-occuring fraternal twins tend to be taller and >reach menopause earlier. That would be another interesting thread. Jo-Anne, tell us more. Are you saying that women who ovulate early in their cycles are more likely to release more than one egg? My second, Peter, the one who has Down Syndrome, is thought to have had a twin that didn't survive past early pregnancy (because there was a second, partial placenta, the one that gave me so much grief after Peter's easy and painless birth). So I'd be interested in hearing more about this. If it's too off-topic, feel free to write me by private email. And I'm also curious about your comment on height and menopause. I know that Westerners, with their better health and nutrition in childhood, tend to be taller, earlier than people who have poor diet and health in childhood. We also tend to go through puberty and menarche earlier -- on average, 12.6 years (and holding steady for the last 40 years or so in Western countries), compared to as late as 18-20 years for women in very adverse environmental conditions. But as far as menopause goes, Westerners tend to have LATER menopause, at an average age of 51 years, compared to mid-40s for women in adverse environments. Or did you mean that among healthy, well-nourished women, those who are genetically taller tend to have later menopause? Kathy Dettwyler, curious (and also mourning the loss of my own natural experience of menopause, as I had "chemopause" at age 44 instead). :( _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html