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Menopause is the very specific period of women life – actually it is the end of reproductive age of women when ovaries stop producing eggs. Different women have menopause at different age - some have menopause in early age, while others have late. Typically women lose their fertility a decade before menopause. It always was difficult to predict when women will reach menopause.
Recently scientists discovered how to predict the age of women when she will start menopause.
HOW MENOPAUSE CAN BE PREDICTED
Recently scientists developed the method of accurately predicting when women will hit the menopause using a simple blood test. The average difference between the predicted age and the actual age that the women in their study reached the menopause was only a third of a year, and the maximum margin of error was between three and four years.
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Scientists developed a blood test that they believe will be able to help women know when their biological clock of menstrual cycle will stop ticking, so they can plan on having children before they stop producing eggs. Doctors can measure the concentrations of a hormone in blood that is produced by cells in women’s ovaries – called Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH). AMH controls the development of follicles in the ovaries, from which oocytes (eggs) develop and it has been suggested that AMH can be used for measuring ovarian function.
To estimate the age when women would enter menopause, scientists used mathematical calculations based on the amount of AMH that women had in the blood. The hormone (AMH) that is used to help assess the potential for pregnancy in assisted reproduction might prove to be an accurate predictor of a woman's age at menopause - Anti-Müllerian hormone levels may predict age at menopause within one or two years in women as young as age 30. According to scientists the Anti-Müllerian hormone is more sensitive predictor of age at menopause than chronological age alone.
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AMH is the indicator of women “ovarian reserve” – it is the term used to describe the number of good quality eggs left within a woman’s ovaries. A woman is born with approximately one million eggs and over her reproductive life her egg numbers will decline as they are lost through natural attrition and ovulation. Only approximately 400 eggs are lost through the process of ovulation. The remaining eggs are lost through natural cell death (apoptosis).
The rate at which eggs are lost through apoptosis varies between individual women and this will account for the difference in age of menopause.
According to the recent studies using age and AMH concentration, the age range in which menopause will occur can be individually predicted.
For example, the predicted average age at menopause of a 30 year old woman with an AMH concentration close to 0.15 ng/ml is 48.8 years. On the other hand, the predicted average age at menopause of a 30 year old woman with an AMH concentration close to 4.38 ng/ml is 55.3 years.
Menopause age prediction can be very useful for many women as modern women often postpone having children until their career has been well established. It could therefore be very useful for women to know beforehand up to which age they remain fertile – it would help women to schedule their reproductive plans.
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