About Pregnant Aes Sedai

[FarShainMael]

It seems to me that the whole metabolism should slow, not just parts of it. So yes, the menstrual cycle would lengthen. (It does in the real world if a woman has certain health problems such as suboptimal nutrition, and can disappear entirely in conditions of near-starvation.) This slowing should also affect eating - do AS only require one meal a day, for instance?

[Luckers]

Yeah they eat normally.

[Kahsm]

Just to note. But channeling women NEVER seem to look old. It seems to be more than just "slowing" as described in the books. Where are the old wrinkled, hunched, frail wise ones? They get grey hair, that's about it, even without the oath rod they still tend to look and stomp around as if they're perpetually middle-aged at most.

 

Seems possible it's a very slow aging up to a point, then WHAM you just die. You go like 40-100 in like a year and just fall over. It's hard to know because I don't think we've ever seen a non-oath-rod-ed channeler die from natural causes...

[David Selig]

Sorilea looks really old, though she still has plenty of vigor.

[Lisa Campbell]

One thing to note is that Elayne has only been channeling for around a year--she won't have slowed yet. Furthermore its interesting to note that Melaine also is quite young, and Amys, the other cited to channeler to have children had them in the time before she wouldn't have slowed--Rhuarc's children are all grown, which means Amys made have had her children shortly after completing her apprenticeship.

 

It's possible the menstrual cycle does slow in line with the rest of it, and that for slowed channelers the fertile time is much less frequent--it might explain the complete lack of children to Aes Sedai (who don't marry often, but there are a fair number who do still do the naughty).

 

I'm not saying its impossible, just that the ease with which Melaine, Elayne and Amys got pregnant may not hold once a channeler has properly slowed.

 

If females are together for prolonged periods of time (think housemates or co-workers), their cylces adjust and usually fall at about the same time each month. This is true in humans and other animals. It's not necessarily related to... well, you know, but to ovulating at about the same time, give or take a few days.

[Sharaman]

Sorilea who is very weak in OP is also pretty old - maybe over 250 years.

Morgause who can barely channel (not even enough for Seanchan and Shaido to a'dam / shield her) looks like her 20-year-old daughter's elder sister and may, if you go by description, well still be capable of having kids.

Insofar as RJ thought about it, seems that channeling just slows down ageing a lot. it might, going by Alivia and LTT & Demandred (vigorous early middle age = 400) mean a ratio of 10:1 for a strong channeler. If so, it's possible that a strong female channeler like Alivia could have kids when she's 350-400.

Interesting questions:

1) Now that Sharina is touching the source, will her menopause reverse?

2) Does the ORod somehow accelerate menopause?

3) is the O Rod deliberately designed to prevent conception? It might be - it was used on criminals.

[MasterAblar]

Sorilea who is very weak in OP is also pretty old - maybe over 250 years.

Morgause who can barely channel (not even enough for Seanchan and Shaido to a'dam / shield her) looks like her 20-year-old daughter's elder sister and may, if you go by description, well still be capable of having kids.

Insofar as RJ thought about it, seems that channeling just slows down ageing a lot. it might, going by Alivia and LTT & Demandred (vigorous early middle age = 400) mean a ratio of 10:1 for a strong channeler. If so, it's possible that a strong female channeler like Alivia could have kids when she's 350-400.

Interesting questions:

1) Now that Sharina is touching the source, will her menopause reverse?

2) Does the ORod somehow accelerate menopause?

3) is the O Rod deliberately designed to prevent conception? It might be - it was used on criminals.

 

As to the first question: no. I believe RJ said that her body would look younger but it wouldn't actually be younger, or something like that. But definitely no.

[Himiko]

EDIT: I think sleepinghour is right. LTT was over 400 years old, and he had small children, which he later kills. If a man can still be able to reproduce after 400 years, I think it's safe to say that an AS(with oaths) can have children even after 100-150 years.

 

That simply doesn't follow, biologically.

 

 

Why not? Channelers age several times slower. A 400 man that can channel has all the characteristics of a 50+ man.

Why shouldn't this be the same for women? They don't age on the outside, but they are rotting inside?!?

I don't follow your line of thought.

 

But once a woman hits the menopause, she can no longer reproduce. Whilst I believe that, generally speaking, as a man's age increases, his fertility levels decrease (Biology= not my strong point), a man can theoretically impregnate a woman at any point in his life.

 

So in other words, if a channeller is born with exactly the same reproductive capabilities as a non-channelling woman, and has a reproductive cycle of the same length, then, in theory, she will be out of her childbearing years at around the same time as the average non-channeller. Whereas whilst a 400 year old man is likely to be less fertile than his younger self, he is still physically able to impregnate women.

 

That said, Siuan's in her 40s, and theoretically still quite capable of bearing children, as far as I know, channeller or otherwise.

 

Also, Elayne hasn't slowed yet, so if slowing has an effect on the menstrual cycle, as it has on things like greying hair, which I suspect it does, then it may well just not have taken hold in her yet, and would explain why she was "in sync" with Birgitte.

[Brevsparv]

I don't think the age of the menopause is a problem. The menopause occur when the body is not physically fit to carry a child. The number of eggs is not a problem either. There are usually 400,000 eggs in the ovaries: you would have to live for 30,000 years for the eggs to run out.

 

That means that even "if a channeller is born with exactly the same reproductive capabilities as a non-channeling woman, and has a reproductive cycle of the same length," she will be able to reproduce for many more years than the non-channeller.

[Demiandre]

I thought I read once this about AoL Aes Sedai. They can live much more longer than any living person, but it is not an extension of their lifespan so to say, but also more of a slowing of their aging nature.

 

Let's say a normal person. They start declining at 30. Before that they are at their prime. After that, they get tired faster, and can endure fewer things (alcohol, lack of sleep, lack of food/water, stress and so on). The older they get, the faster it goes. (I'm just suming it up, I won't and can't explain it thouroughly. I'm lacking proper knowledge)

 

The process is slower when you channel, but it is also postponed. For an Aes Sedai, the aging will only begin when they are (let say) 65 (for a normal person). The Aes Sedai have a much longer "prime-time". They will decline much later than a normal person in comparison to their lifespan. So I assumed that a woman Aes Sedai won't achieve Menopause before 450 years if they were to die at 475, or maybe even later than that. I just give numbers without really thinking about it. It's only an example.

[rand4747]

actually menopause is when you run out of eggs, because most eggs die and never form. the strongest ones forming kill the others.

 

As for channelers, I think why they liuve longer is the power sorta heals them. It keeps them from aging so fast because it repairs itself, but something still must happen that makes them just quickly age at the end of their life then kick the bucket, although that rapid aging might be over 50 years until then they are still quite youthfull. Even when near the end they seem to be as healthy as someone much younger.

 

Channelers may be able to continue producing new eggs perhaps or they have less die and just begin to grow fewer at a time.

[Luckers]

One thing to note is that Elayne has only been channeling for around a year--she won't have slowed yet. Furthermore its interesting to note that Melaine also is quite young, and Amys, the other cited to channeler to have children had them in the time before she wouldn't have slowed--Rhuarc's children are all grown, which means Amys made have had her children shortly after completing her apprenticeship.

 

It's possible the menstrual cycle does slow in line with the rest of it, and that for slowed channelers the fertile time is much less frequent--it might explain the complete lack of children to Aes Sedai (who don't marry often, but there are a fair number who do still do the naughty).

 

I'm not saying its impossible, just that the ease with which Melaine, Elayne and Amys got pregnant may not hold once a channeler has properly slowed.

 

If females are together for prolonged periods of time (think housemates or co-workers), their cylces adjust and usually fall at about the same time each month. This is true in humans and other animals. It's not necessarily related to... well, you know, but to ovulating at about the same time, give or take a few days.

 

 

I wasn't saying that slowing was the reason Elayne's cycle adjusted, I was saying that its possible that the reason Elayne still has a cycle once a month, instead of once a year or whatever the timing would be for a slowed channeler (under this concept), is because she hasn't slowed yet.

 

If this is so then Elayne's cycle will slow down when she does--and that subsequently slowed channelers are not fertile as often as unslowed channelers, and that this may well explain why no Aes Sedai whatsoever have children--because the odds of a women havn't infrequent sex falling pregnant increase dramatically when she is, say, only fertile once every six months.

[rand4747]

while its called slowing I don't believe everything slows down. Use of the power I believe just makes them heal better from damage to extend their lives. So all these nasty free radicals and damage from radiation (natural background radiation) and all. So you wont see them die from diseases or cancer, just accident/violence/being so old you just drop dead.

 

 

There was an article I saw recently that people reaching over 90 or something seem to stop aging, the death rate does not increase as they get older after that. I will try find a link for it.

Although if something like that is happening why do perfectly healthy aes sedai just suddenly die for no reason when they get so old.

[Jemlin]

I few points to throw in:

 

1. A woman can have a cycle/period that is not actually connected with the release of an egg. The body will signal all the hormones, but an ovarie egg doesn't actually develop and drop into the Uterus. The lining still eventually is ejected, hence a period, and all the hormone fluctuations associated. This isn't normal though. But it can happen.

 

2. Depletion of ovarian folicles (eggs) does signal menopause and the max for that is usually 50 years for normal women. It IS tied to menstral cycles. So, in reality, for the Aes Sedai to have a longer than 50 year fertility their cycles would have to end up slowing. We only hear of Elayne having periods, and she hasn't properly slowed.

 

In all seriousness, RJ probably didn't' detail something like this out. It's possible the One Power use does something wacky with the body...but that really wouldn't make sense. In the AoL, it is also possible they had many ways of artificial impregnation or growth/activation of dorman ovaries. They were able to Restore severed limbs and heal scars...that isn't too far off.