Why do humans with no ovaries or testicles need to take hormone supplements to stay healthy, but animals who have been neutered are seemingly fine and often live longer than their intact counterparts?

Question

Just something that occurred to me when thinking about my elderly cat, who’s spent almost 16 years without her uterus or ovaries to no apparent detriment.

In: Biology

Answer 1

If dogs and cats lived to be 80 like us humans then suddenly they would suffer from having there gonads removed. This is because the morbid effects of surgical menopause/andropause take decades to manifest, so humans don’t get these morbid diseases until they are elderly. Back in the old days when our life expectancy was much shorter, castrating men was much more common because the long term affects on life expectancy were less significant. If you cut out a humans ovaries and uterus when they are young (like your cat), and don’t give them HRT, 16 years later, they won’t have heart disease, alzheimers, (but they might have mild osteoprosis), because these diseases require many decades to take effect… but 50 years later, that lady might have had 2 heart attacks, fractured both her hips, and also her mind might be a bit frail. Now if your cat was able to live another 50 years, then it might experience the same