This happened to N’s sister. She decided she was finally ready to have children, went to a clinic, and was told she’s in menopause. It’s tragic but it’s absolutely the result of cultural messaging that denies biology.
Human hubris wants to believe that there won’t be any limitations on its desires but reality always comes at it with a vengeance.
I have no idea how one family produced both her and her brother. They are exact polar opposites of each other in everything.
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“one family produced both her and her brother”
My guess…. she was the Golden Child and he was the Scapegoat.
It’s probably a bit more complex…. but not too much more….
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Yes. That’s exactly it. She was the family savior because her birth finally entitled them to a separate apartment and they could leave the communal apartment. This enabled the parents to get joyfully violent with each other because they had been ashamed to do it in the communal apartment.
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And yet almost everyone knows a woman who gave birth when well into her forties, and if you’re an incurable optimist you tell yourself, “Hey, if she could do it….”
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“a woman who gave birth when well into her forties”
It can happen… but it’s not how smart money bets….
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My own grandmother thought she was in menopause but it turned out she was pregnant with twins. It definitely happens. The difference is that Grandma hadn’t been waiting. She already had a bunch of kids before.
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“She already had a bunch of kids before”
Anecdotally, a lot of the pregnant after 40 stories are about women who’ve already been pregnant.
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Of course not. I’m only saying that that’s how some people think, if you can call it thinking.
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In spite of all the talk about education, many people are utterly unable to understand the law of statistical averages and the role of outliers.
I don’t mean you, of course. People who don’t understand how this works wouldn’t be reading this blog. But for many people it’s exactly as you say. They see a pleasing outlier and confuse it with reality at large.
A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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