DOCTORS were set to unveil tomorrow a simple blood test that could tell young women the precise age at which they would no longer be able to have babies.
The test – which measures levels of a hormone produced by the ovaries – could allow women as young as 20 to pinpoint within a few months when they would cease to be fertile.
The procedure, to be launched in Rome at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, would be valuable to women trying to balance careers with having children.
Among Western women, menopause occurs on average at 51. However, about 15 per cent of women experience it early, under the age of 45.
“Our results suggest that the novel marker anti-Mullerian hormone (produced by the ovaries) could precisely forecast the age at menopause, even in young women,” said Dr Fahimeh Ramezani Tehrani, who led the research.
Dr Tehrani analysed levels of the hormone, which controls the development of the cells in the ovaries from which eggs develop, in 266 women aged 20 to 49.
It was known that levels of the hormone vary between women and also decline with age. Scientists previously suspected that changing levels were linked to menopause, but there was insufficient data to use this knowledge as a predictive tool.
By gathering data from a large number of women, Dr Tehrani believes she created a mathematical model that can predict the age of menopause for any woman.
The test developed by Dr Tehrani, a senior researcher at the World Health Organisation-backed Endocrine Research Centre in Tehran, would need to be validated in large-scale trials before it could come into common use.
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