Hormone levels may give us the key to when our fertile years will end

The age-specific blood levels of the Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) can predict when women will reach menopause. This makes family planning easier, say fertility researchers from the University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands. Their findings were published online May 26 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Generally, women enter menopause between the age 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.

Predicting menopause
The study included 257 healthy women who were monitored for as long as eleven years. The Dutch researchers linked AMH levels to the point when the women entered menopause and based on these data constructed a model to predict the menopausal age. Using age and AMH, the age range in which menopause will occur can be individually predicted.

For example, the predicted median age at menopause of a 30 year old woman with an AMH concentration close to 0.15 ng/ml will be 48.8 years. On the other hand, the predicted median age at menopause of a 30 year old woman with an AMH concentration close to 4.38 ng/ml will be 55.3 years. These findings may only be translated into clinical practice after a thorough assay standardisation.

Postpone having children
The research was conducted under the leadership of gynecologists Professor Frank Broekmans and Professor Bart Fauser. "Women often postpone having children until their career has been well established. However they may find that it is difficult to get pregnant at this time. 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," the gynecologists say.

This knowledge will enable women who are predicted to 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. University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands, offers people the possibility of having eggs frozen and stored in a human egg bank.

Article: 29th May 2011 www.sciencedaily.com

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Fertility test could predict a woman's menopause

Women may soon be able to plan better how long to wait to start a family thanks to a simple test.
By reading clues hidden in a woman’s genes, it could give her odds of going through an early menopause, scientists say.

Those deemed to be at risk could try for a baby earlier than they otherwise might.

Lead scientist Dr Anna Murray said: ‘It is estimated that a woman’s ability to conceive decreases on average ten years before she starts the menopause.

‘Therefore, those who are destined to have an early menopause and delay childbearing until their 30s are more likely to have problems conceiving.’

They compared the DNA of 2,000 women who suffered it with that of those who had stopped their periods at the normal age.

In the UK, the average age for the menopause – defined as the time when a woman’s periods have stopped for 12 months – is 52.

However, 1 per cent of women go through the menopause before they hit 40. Timing is largely genetic, although weight and the age that periods start have an effect.

The researchers found that the four genes all affected early menopause in their own ways, and much more so when they were all present. They added that their findings help explain why some females go into menopause early.

Women who enter the menopause early have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, infertility and osteoporosis, and a lower risk of getting breast cancer.

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Hope of children for women suffering early menopause

Women who go through an early menopause could soon be given the chance to have children again thanks to a pioneering stem cell treatment. Scientists have come up with a way of restoring the ovaries' ability to produce eggs using cells specially developed in the lab.
The new technique offers hope for the thousands of women who go through menopause before the reach the age of 40, meaning they are unable to have children.

There is no current treatment for the condition, known as Premature Ovarian Failure, which affects 1 per cent of all women. It causes their ovaries to stop producing eggs 10 or even 30 years earlier than normal leaving them infertile, when many were hoping to have babies. But scientists in Cairo have come up with a method which they say could be developed to help restore the ovaries to their normal working order.

In a study involving rats, the researchers created a special type of stem cell known as a mesenchymal stem cell from rat embryos. They then implanted these cells into female rats who had been a chemical to induce ovarian failure.

They found that within two weeks the female rates ovaries were working normally, and within two months their hormone levels were the same as animals who did have the illness.

The researchers, who presented their findings to the World Congress on Fertility and Sterility in Munich, say the concept could be developed to treat women with the condition.

Professor Osama Azmy, who led the study, said: 'This work shows that Mesenchymal Stem Cells can restore ovarian function. The treated ovaries returned to producing eggs and hormones, and we could detect the presence of the stem cells within the newly functioning ovaries.

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