In conversation with an evolutionary geneticist

Author Dr. Deena Emera

Part of our unlock on $ATH token utility is giving access to leaders in women’s health to our community. We are hosting a limited series of AthenaDAO’s Author Book Club, where we get to meet prominent names in science!

​For our inaugural session, we'll be joined by Dr. Deena Emera, the author of: "A Brief History of the Female Body: An Evolutionary Look at How and Why the Female Form Came to Be".

Deena Emera, PhD, is an evolutionary geneticist, author, and teacher. She earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley, a master’s degree from NYU, and a PhD from Yale. She currently serves as a scientist and writer-in-residence at the Buck Institute’s Center for Reproductive Longevity and Equality. In her new book A Brief History of the Female Body, Deena draws on her expertise as a biologist and experience as a mother of four to explore the mysteries of the female body through an evolutionary lens.  

We sat down with Dr. Emera to ask her some of our pressing questions:

Q. Can you give us a quick summary of what this book delves into? 

A. A Brief History of the Female Body explores the evolutionary history of our bodies and how this history affects our health and well-being today. Why are there sexes in the first place?  How and why did breasts evolve? Menstruation? The female orgasm? Pregnancy and motherhood? Menopause? I don’t pretend to have all the answers in this book (we don’t have them all yet), but I hope it elevates the conversation about female biology and provides women with a new perspective on their bodies, health, and aging.

Q. What is an adaptation women have developed over time that you think is interesting?  

A. I’m fascinated with physiological, anatomical, and behavior adaptations related to reproductive choice. Female animals, including humans, make an enormous investment in reproduction. Think about how much time and energy we spend for pregnancy, lactation, and caregiving. Evolutionary theory predicts that because of this large investment, females would evolve mechanisms of choice to maximize the chances that we are investing in offspring that will survive and go on to reproduce themselves. As a PhD student working on endometrial evolution, I learned that the endometrium acts as a sensor of embryo quality, actively preventing developmentally impaired embryos from implanting (a large percentage of human pregnancies are lost at the implantation stage). This selection isn’t limited to embryo choice at implantation. There is evidence that sperm, egg, and even mate selection occurs, too.

Also fascinating are some of the specific adaptations that have evolved in individual species related to choice. You may have seen the headline last month about the European common frog. Spring is mating time for these frogs, which is chaotic and even dangerous for females because males will pile on to the females, up to 7 males on one female at a time. Female frogs have evolved many evasive maneuvers to avoid unwanted males—including faking their own death! Female mallard ducks and bottlenose dolphins have evolved very unusual vaginal morphologies, which don’t stop males from mating with them (males in both species are very aggressive), but we think these morphologies allow the female to choose the sperm of her preferred partner for the fertilization of her eggs. Historically, researchers thought that females in the animal world lacked agency because they tend to be smaller and weaker than males in their species, but we’re finding more and more evidence of female choice in the animal world.  

Q. Are there any specific findings or projects related to women's health in your research that you find particularly exciting or promising? 

A. I’m excited about a project I’m just starting on reproductive longevity in mammals. Human women are somewhat unique in the animal world for living so long beyond the age of menopause. Because of the way that female mammals and birds make their eggs (all are made during fetal development), all female birds and mammals have the potential to run out of eggs and experience menopause. But natural selection in most species has adjusted the egg supply and/or the rate at which eggs are depleted over life to ensure that females in the species will not run out of eggs over their lifetime. This isn’t the case in humans, one population of chimps in Uganda (just reported on last month), and a few species of toothed whales. This has puzzled biologists for some time.

I’m fascinated with the question of why some mammals experience menopause in mid-life, but I’m equally fascinated by the long-lived mammals who manage to avoid menopause. Bowhead whales are the prime example. They can live over 200 years, and they don’t appear to go through menopause. By studying the genomes and ovaries of these animals, I want to understand how they evolved to keep their ovaries healthy for so much longer than humans. I hope that figuring out their natural solution to reproductive longevity will one day lead to more choices for females in our species. A therapeutic that could maintain ovarian health during aging would give women more career and family planning choices and improve women’s quality of life in the second half of life.

Q. What are some things you touch on in your book that you think are of particular interest/relevance? 

A. One big theme in my book is that many of the health challenges women face today exist because of a mismatch between our lifestyles and bodies. Our lifestyles have changed dramatically over the last hundred years, but our bodies, which have been evolving for hundreds of millions of years, can’t adapt in such a short timeframe. I think we can better understand (and in some cases, treat) diseases such as breast cancer, autoimmunity, addiction, and obesity by considering this mismatch.

Q. Where do you think the next evolutionary changes will be made to women’s biology as technology develops?

A. As technology develops, I think we’ll be able to circumvent some of the evolutionary constraints on our bodies, such as menopause at 50. Our bodies can’t adapt quickly enough in response to the rapid cultural changes we’re experiencing today. This isn’t to say that humans aren’t evolving. There is evidence that natural selection has been operating in some human populations to increase female reproductive lifespan on both ends—but the effect is very small, on the order of weeks. This won’t help women much today or in future generations who are delaying childbearing and experiencing infertility in their 30s and 40s and many health problems after menopause. As we establish our careers, gain wealth, and take time to find the right partners, technological advances such as egg freezing and IVF are allowing women in their late 30s and 40s to start families. Developing technologies such as IVG and interventions that could delay menopause will give people even more choices.

Q. How can we improve women’s health? 

A. I believe lifestyle and dietary improvements are the first and most impactful changes women can make. We are bombarded daily with foods and activities that are harmful to our bodies. Trying to minimize the harmful (processed foods, sedentary lifestyles, screens, dangerous chemicals) and maximize the beneficial (exercise, sunlight, plant-rich diets, sleep, community) is critical. Education is also important. Our children get puberty education in grade school but there is no such education for women in perimenopause and post-menopause. Many women are missing vital information about their health, or worse, have misinformation. Last but not least, as researchers we need to make up for decades of male-focused pre-clinical and clinical research and work to better understand female biology and treat women who are sick. As an example, the treatment options for women with endometriosis are extremely limited, and it affects 5-10% of women! This is unacceptable.

Q. How can we get women more involved and more aware of their own health?

A. In an ideal world, women would get awareness and vital information about their health from their primary doctors and ob/gyns. Unfortunately, in the US at least, doctors spend very little time with their patients and the focus is on treatment of an acute problem, not preventative care. It has also become clear that doctors aren’t trained to deal with perimenopausal and menopausal women. 80% of medical schools don’t even include menopause in the curriculum.

There are many other ways for women to get information. During the research for my book, I found many books, websites, newsletters, bloggers, influencers, podcasters, etc. focused on women’s bodies and health. There are also telehealth companies now offering more tailored care for women, especially in perimenopause and menopause. Honestly, the information out there can be overwhelming and is sometimes difficult to understand or is wrong. My hope is that women find doctors who are good partners in their care and find sources of information that are trustworthy, understandable, and useful.

Q. Anything else you want to mention? 

A. I hope you enjoy my book and learn something new and fascinating about your body.

Major collaboration breakfast in Istanbul with Ensō Collective and SheFi! 🪩🤍💫

​Join AthenaDAO, ​Ensō Collective, and SheFi on Monday, November 13th, 2023 at 9:00 am TRT, for a breakfast where web3, digital collectibles, women's health research, and much more will be discussed.

​Ensō Collective is a social shopping app where users can build their onchain reputation and get paid from the brands they love.​ SheFi empowers female and non-binary professionals, entrepreneurs and executives to succeed in frontier industries.