Identifying menopause

Wouldn’t it be great to know when your baby clock will stop ticking? It would change a woman’s life if she knew before going into medical school how long she had before she needed to get serious about making a family. It could in fact spark another liberation: Women in control of the biological clocks.

Doctor and researcher Simone Brier of the University of Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht has concluded that age-specific blood levels of the anti Mullerian hormone AMH can predict when a woman will reach menopause. The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Women start menopause usually between 40 and 60. Perimenopause can start as early as 35. But a woman’s reliable fertility end about ten years before that. Eggs stop dropping or drop irregularly after that. As the eggs age, they may resist or be unsuitable for fertilization. With regard to family making and career planning, it would be invaluable information for a woman today. To know when menopause would start, how long it would last, would become a valuable tool in life planning.

“Women often put off having children until their career has been well established, but then they may find that it is difficult to get pregnant. It could therefore be very useful for women to know beforehand up to which age they remain fertile As far as we know, we are the first researchers worldwide to succeed in making ling term predictions for individual women,” said Dr. Broer.

Further research is being carried out on the reliability of the blood test before final applicability can be achieved.

Source: UMC, Medical News Today