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Costs of Reproduction, Health, and Life Span in Women

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The Arc of Life

Abstract

Reproduction in females is costly: pregnancy, breast-feeding, and childcare require energy, and thus energetic costs are indispensable feature of reproduction. Pregnancy and lactation also require many physiological changes, including in maternal immune system and increased levels of oxidative stress. Finally, genes involved in encoding traits related to reproduction often have multiple functions. Some of these genes have alleles that support reproduction but also increase risk of diseases later in life, and their carriers have higher mortality.

Results of studies testing relationships between reproduction and health and reproduction and life span are contradictory, possibly due to methodological problems and theoretical framework problems. There is a need for studies that would analyze these relationships at both genetic and phenotypic levels, and that would comprehensively calculate costs of reproductive investment, including not only number of children but also birth spacing, lactation, childcare, and extended reproductive effort.

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Acknowledgment

This chapter was supported by grants from the National Science Centre (grant no. N N404 273440), Ministry of Science and Higher Education (grant no. IdP2011 000161) and grant K/ZDS/006113, Salus Publica Foundation, and Yale University Program in Reproductive Ecology.

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  1. Department of Environmental Health, Jagiellonian University Collegium Medicum, Grzegorzecka 20, 31-531, Krakow, Poland

    Grazyna Jasienska

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  1. Grazyna Jasienska
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Correspondence to Grazyna Jasienska .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland

    Grazyna Jasienska

  2. School of Communication, Institute of Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Diana S. Sherry

  3. Department of Biological Sciences and WWAMI Medical Education Program, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA

    Donna J. Holmes

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Jasienska, G. (2017). Costs of Reproduction, Health, and Life Span in Women. In: Jasienska, G., Sherry, D., Holmes, D. (eds) The Arc of Life. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-4038-7_10

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