Her research shows that a blood test measuring key hormone levels can accurately predict menopause’s onset
Dr. Nanette Santoro says this quick and easy way of testing will be able to predict menopause’s start in a woman by identifying when the final menstrual period will occur, through measuring the levels of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), a key menopause-causing hormone.
Until now, doctors used the frequency of a woman’s periods to estimate the onset of menopause, but this method is much less accurate as it only narrows the window to a four-year period.
“Establishing a way to measure time to the final menstrual period has long been the holy grail of menopause research,” says Santoro, who worked with researchers at Harvard on the study.
The test will also allow medical professionals to know how many eggs a woman has left, signifying whether the end of her fertile period of life is coming to an end.