Latest Test For Fertility And Menopause Forecasting When Menopause Takes Place And When Fertility Will Begin To Decline
Fertility and menopause go together, and it is a recognized thing that fertility decreases in the years that precede the menopause, so predicting the age at which menopause is usual to begin is a very convenient thing.
As reported by a 12 year Iranian study of 266 women, a novel test which determines a hormone called anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) detected it was feasible to determine the age of menopause by determining the levels of AMH.
AMH is manufactured in the cells of the ovaries and regulates the development of follicles in the ovaries from which eggs grow.
The study was undertaken at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran and was led by Dr Fahimeh Ramezani Tehrani. In the study, 266 women aged ranging from 20 and 49 were followed through blood samples and physical examinations at three yearly intervals over a 12 year span. Researchers then worked out a mathematical model for evaluating the age at menopause from AMH levels in the blood. They established that using this method, they were able to predict the age at which women attained menopause to within a mean of just 4 months.
This method should be particularly good for identifying women who could have an early menopause and who could then prepare on building a family consequently.
The menopause test does not predict when women may lose their fertility. Usually this happens around a decade prior to menopause. But, if doctors are aware of the moment women might go into menopause, they can calculate roughly when they will run out of eggs. Researchers say the test could be extremely helpful in analyzing women who may go into the menopause early, for example, in their late 40s or earlier rather than their mid 50s.
Nevertheless, you should also understand that there are other causes that can determine fertility including the partner's sperm and other clinical conditions like scarred tubes, so the Menopause test ought not to be relied on as the only predictor of diminishing fertility.