Blood test to tell you how long till the menopause

A SIMPLE blood test may tell women how close they are to the menopause.

The test can predict with reasonable accuracy if women over 48 will reach menopause in one to two years.

It measures a hormone in the blood which signposts a woman’s remaining eggs.

Women, who are born with all the eggs they will ever have, release one with each monthly cycle until they run out, are no longer able to have babies and reach the menopause.

Scientists analysed levels of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) in 1,537 women aged between 42 and 63. They found they could essentially ‘guarantee’ that women under 48 with the highest level of the hormone would not go through the menopause in the next 12 months.

But for women of this age with the lowest level of AMH, their odds of entering menopause in the next two years were 65 per cent. For those aged 48 to 51, the likelihood was 82 per cent.

Experts say the blood test works better than trying to predict the timing of someone’s menopause by looking at their periods.

Knowing when they are going to reach menopause allows women to plan for the night sweats and hot flushes which cause misery.

Dr Nanette Santoro, a co-author of a study on the AMH test from the University of Colorado Medical School, said: ‘Establishing a

‘Long been the holy grail’

way to measure time to the final menstrual period has long been the holy grail.

‘Using bleeding patterns or previously available tests to predict the time to menopause can only help us narrow the window to a four-year period. Women can make better medical decisions with the more complete information offered by new, more sensitive anti-Mullerian hormone measurements.’

In the UK, the average woman goes through the menopause at 51, although a study this month suggested those who have sex at least once a week can delay this. AMH is measured per millilitre of blood in a tiny measure called a picogram, which is one trillionth of a gram. Dr Geeta Nargund, medical director at Create Fertility, said: ‘AMH measurement helps estimate when a woman will undergo her menopause.

‘It can help to prepare women to discuss the expected symptoms and also general health outcomes associated with impending menopause. However, I do not recommend that we routinely start using AMH test for women to predict their onset of menopause.’

Giving birth and then breastfeeding protects against an early menopause, University of Massachusetts scientists have revealed.

ON NIGHTS out with my girlfriends, there comes a point in the evening where i consciously keep quiet: that moment, after a couple of glasses, when the floodgates open and they animatedly discuss hot flushes, sleeplessness, lethargy and night sweats. i can’t join in with all this menopause-related chatter because, despite being 59, i’m yet to go through the dreaded change.

i still have periods and have never experienced a hot flush, never mind any other symptom of hormonal change.

it has long puzzled me why i’ve seemingly dodged the bullet. so, last l week’s research, which said regular r sex might help to defer the t menopause, was nothing short of o a revelation.

At last, i think i know what’s been b going on, because the years when i might have expected to go through the menopause were taken up with a passionate affair.

For ten years, i was intimate almost daily with a handsome man a decade my junior. i can only guess that’s what has kept my hormones seemingly s unchanged — and the menopause m at bay.

the basic theory, scientists say, is i that if you have a full sexual life, you’re y keeping your body and hormones active, so you stay fertile for longer.

experts asked nearly 3,000 women — who were tracked for ten years — how often they had sex. Women of any age who had sex each week were 28 per cent less likely to have been through the menopause by age 51, compared with those who had sex less than once a month.

scientists postulated that, if a woman is not having sex and there is no chance of pregnancy, the body ‘ chooses’ to stop investing energy into ovulation, and enters menopause.

the menopause is diagnosed when you haven’t had a period for 12 months, and usually occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, with the average age being 51.

Back in 2009, when i first met the man, Jack, i was 49 and he was 39. Although i was yet to have any symptoms, i was sure the menopause was firmly on the horizon.

We met by chance in a country clothing store he owned in epsom, near a friend i was visiting.

i wanted to buy a Barbour jacket and, from the moment i walked in, he couldn’t take his eyes off me. As i left, he said with a cheeky grin: ‘Perhaps i can take you out for dinner some time?’

He was far from my usual sporty, dark- haired type. Blond, with bright blue eyes, he seemed a typical ‘suit’ — corporate, buried in paperwork. After having terrible luck with men, i was flattered, so scribbled down my number.

i never dreamed it, but this first meeting would lead to the most profoundly caring and fulfilling relationship i have ever had. And in my 50s, too!

Jack and i were very passionate. every time we met, i would be on a high. i felt like a teenager, with a bounce in my step — sometimes quite literally, as i’d leap into his arms when i saw him.

in the years when many women are felled by the menopause, i was having the time of my life with a fabulously caring man.

But surely, i would think, the Change will be coming soon, and everything will be different?

STILL, time went on and nothing happened, despite my fears. Jack and i spent passion packed long weekends in France, Holland, scotland and ireland. When we were apart — which was rare — we kept in constant contact by text and phone.

Jack made me feel sexy whether i was in wellies or a negligee. And while some of that was sheer chemistry — i could almost feel the air crackle when we were together — part was surely down to how thoughtful and attentive he was from the moment i met him.

He phoned me within days of swapping numbers and our first date was in a pub he chose in Amberley village, West sussex, with spectacular views over the south Downs and the river Arun in the

distance. ‘I want to know everything about you,’ he said as we held hands across the table.

I felt so comfortable I did all the things they say you shouldn’t do on a first date — sharing my hopes, fears and details of my previous car crash relationships.

Up until Jack, my relationships had been disastrous. I had never felt loved or special.

My first marriage, aged 23, ended badly not long after I’d had my daughter, Naomi, now 36. And my second marriage, aged 29, also failed acrimoniously — the only good thing to come of it was my son, Josh, now 29. Really, then, Jack was the first man to wake me up sexually, just as the love lives of other women my age hit the doldrums.

I don’t know whether my friends’ sex lives have suffered because of the menopause — it’s not really something we would discuss — but I do know they have been through hell because of its symptoms. Many have had to fall back on HRT. Truly I feel for them, and consider myself blessed to have escaped so far.

As for how they feel about my midlife renaissance, well, my good friends are just happy I found a loving relationship — one not only based on physical attraction, but a bond cemented by trust that allowed me truly to enjoy being with a man.

I haven’t been to see a doctor about my non-existent menopause — would you seek medical advice if you felt as wonderful as I do?

My periods have always been erratic and remain so. But, to this day, I haven’t had a sniff of any sort of midlife change, something I’m now convinced must be to do with the years of regular sexual activity I’ve had throughout my 50s.

You might well think that perhaps the reason I feel so sexually contented is because I’m yet to experience some of the more troublesome side-effects of the menopause — from joint aches to moodiness — which, let’s face it, are hardly the recipe for sexiness. That it was because I didn’t have any menopausal symptoms that I felt so happy in the bedroom, rather than the action of love- making itself delaying the menopause.

WHEN the NHS reviewed the latest research, it said: ‘ The study only shows a link between how often women had sex and their age at menopause. It cannot prove that having more sex directly causes a later menopause.’ You also might wonder whether there are other reasons why my menopause has not yet happened.

Genetic factors are known to influence the time you experience The Change: what age your mother had it is said to play a part.

But my mother went through the menopause around age 51, so hers was not delayed at all.

Lifestyle factors are also said to be important. The menopause is inevitable when our oestrogen and progesterone levels drop, but diet and exercise can delay it.

Doctors believe exercise may postpone the menopause by boosting blood flow to the ovaries. I still get up at 6am to go to the gym, and at the weekends I cycle for miles.

I’ve never smoked and only indulge in the occasional gin and tonic; I have a breakfast of porridge and blueberries and always cook simple, fresh food, such as grilled salmon or chicken, and lots of salad and veg. I still feel sexy, confident and proud of my size 10 figure, but, then, I work hard to keep myself fit.

When my daughter gives birth in a few months’ time, she’s jokingly said I’ll be nicknamed ‘ Granny Go-Go’.

So all this may have delayed my menopause, but surely the delightful romance I enjoyed throughout my 50s must have played its part, too.

Sadly, Jack and I are no longer together. We split up last year after his workload increased and I got elected as a district councillor for my local Bognor Regis and Littlehampton area, which took up a lot of my spare time. Slowly, we drifted apart. I’ve yet to have another relationship.

I’m now wondering whether the end of my passionate romance with Jack will also, finally, herald the arrival of my menopause.

All I can say is that if making love is key to staving off The Change, then I’m all for it.