Wizard fertility (Re: Wizarding Life Span vs. Muggle Life Span)

[chthonia9 <chthonicdancer@hotmail.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 47940

Acire wrote:
> All right, it's a well-known fact that wizards live longer than 
> Muggles. However, here's a question: wouldn't the fact that wizards 
> live longer than Muggles deter some wizards away from marrying a 
> Muggle? 

My thoughts on this question echo those already posted by others.

I have a related question - what affect does the increased lifespan 
have on the ages at which witches and wizards start and cease to be 
fertile?

It appears that in their youth, (up to their 30s - Sirius, Snape 
etc), wizards age similarly to Muggles.  After that it seems to slow 
down until we have Minerva at 70 looking like a 45? year old (I was 
never any good at guessing ages...but then maybe she uses a hair-dye 
potion). If wizards have a longer middle and old age than muggles, 
does that mean that menopause (assuming it exists for witches) sets 
in later?

Given the small size of the school compared to the (assumed) size of 
the wizard population, presumably witches do bear more children than 
their muggle counterparts, over a longer period?  But wizard children 
can start their own families after a relatively short period.

So why do we hear so little about great-great-grandparents?

The extended family dynamics must be fiendishly complex...

Chthonia