Ovulation

A couple of my coworkers were discussing menopause today at lunch.

I'd accidentally walked in on the conversation in the break room as the two ladies talked about a "news" story one of them had read somewhere on the Interweb. The article claimed that women of Japanese and Chinese descent never go through menopause--they just continue to ovulate for the rest of their lives.  I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but there wasn't much else going on to distract me as I was waiting for the microwave.  The ladies (one Russian, the other, Salvadorian) wondered aloud whether an 85-year-old Chinese woman would be able to conceive a child, and why Japanese & Chinese were the only people in the world capable of pulling off such a feat. Their proposed explanation: "Asian people eat a lot of vegetables and fish, so their bodies must stay fertile much longer than other people's."

It took a great deal of effort to keep myself from snorting at the ridiculousness of the conversation. ALL women will eventually experience menopause--including Chinese and Japanese people!!!--it's an inevitable fact of life!!! My food finished heating up, and I made my way to a nearby lunch table. I struggled with deciding whether to interrupt the ladies' conversation and clear up the confusion (exposing the fact that I'd been listening in on them the entire time), or if I should just keep to myself.  As I took my seat, the two ladies glanced at me, then took a long, dumbstruck look at my plate. They then looked at each other in amazement.

I was having grilled salmon & mixed veggies for lunch. -__-

... I decided to keep to myself.
Who cares if they think I'll be popping babies out at age 90? 

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Speaking of ovulation, I read something really neat on the topic in a zoology journal a few days ago... Apparently, cheetahs have a reputation of being incredibly difficult to mate in captivity, as female cheetahs have seemingly unpredictable reproductive cycles.  However, researchers have recently discovered a way to get female cheetahs to be more receptive to their male counterparts' sexual advances-- via bioacoustic signals!!! Studies have shown that female cheetahs are induced ovulators, meaning that a specific external/environmental signal must be present in order for the animal to become sexually viable.  Evidently, in the wild, male cheetahs create a sound called a "stutter-bark" which, when heard by a female, induces ovulation and the release of important reproductive hormones, causing the female to go into heat.  I couldn't find the original article I was referring to, but National Geographic did a report about the finding... awesome.
Yay-yuh, San Diego Zoo!