The age-specific blood levels of the anti Mullerian hormone AMH can predict when women will reach menopause. This has been concluded by doctor and researcher Simone Broer of the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht in a study that is published online today in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The research was conducted under the leadership of gynecologists Professor Frank Broekmans and Dr. Bart Fauser.

Generally, women enter menopause between the ages of forty and sixty. A woman's fertility, however, ends ten years prior to this and in the most unfavorable circumstances occurs around the age of thirty. With regard to family planning and a career, it is extremely valuable for women to know the expected length of their fertility.

The study included 257 healthy women who were monitored for as long as eleven years. Broer linked AMH levels to the point when the women entered menopause and based on that data made a model to predict the menopausal age. With this age-specific AMH level, the end of a woman's fertility can be estimated. While the test cannot accurately predict the exact age in years, it does give a predictor for a longer period than was currently the case. At present further research is being carried out in order to determine the final applicability of the test.

"Women often put off having children until their career has been well established, but then they may find that it is difficult to get pregnant. It could therefore be very useful for women to know beforehand up to which age they remain fertile. As far as we know, we are the first researchers worldwide to succeed in making long term predictions for individual women", Broer and Broekmans said.

This will enable women who know that they will become infertile at an early age to choose the option of having their eggs frozen. This means that they will still be able to have children if it turns out that they can no longer get pregnant spontaneously. The UMC Utrecht offers people the possibility of having eggs frozen and stored in a human egg bank (read more here).

Source:
University Medical Center of Utrecht (UMC Utrecht)