This Article is From Aug 16, 2010

A new test to predict the age of menopause

Tehran: Women in the 21st century are facing professional and personal pressures... more than ever. Any method which can help them calculate how long they've got... before it's too late to start a family... would be welcomed.

Scientists at the Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences in Tehran claim to have developed a blood test which acts like a biological 'crystal ball'.

The test measures the level of a specific hormone, Anti-Mullerian antibody hormone, or AMA... in a woman's blood. AMA... produced by a women's ovarian cells... controls the development of follicles which release the eggs from the ovaries.

AMA has been the focus of Dr Ramezani Tehrani and her team for a decade. Two hundred sixty six women between twenty and forty-nine years of age were picked out from a study run by the Institute.

"Nowadays, especially in modern society, women try to postpone their family in the later (years) of their reproduction, because they would like to finish their education, they would like to get a good career and job, but they are worried if they are at risk of early menopause or not; because about ten percent of women reach menopause in age less than forty-five and for that reason it is important for any woman to know," says Dr. Ramezani Tehrani, Associate Professor, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

The test was used successfully to forecast the time of menopause in 63 women, all within an accuracy of four months. On the basis of that a mathematical model was designed...which can help predict menopause in other women.

The "change of life", or menopause occurs when estrogen levels fall and ovulation ceases. The average age for menopause is between 45 to 55 years. But for some women it arrives earlier.

However the chairman of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology is urging women not to rely on the test too heavily... because habits such as smoking, drinking and other lifestyle factors can have a major influence on the Menopause age.

"Of course it will be consistent for a 35-year old woman to be able to say when she will get menopause, but for a 20-year old that will be more, a little bit more difficult, so the range of results will be wider," says Dr. Luca Ginaroli, Chairman, European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).

This isn't the first time the hormone AMA has been used to help predict fertility. But this is the first to draw long term conclusions and link AMA levels in women with the age at which they will hit menopause.
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