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Test tells women when it's too late to have a baby

By Kasie Davies on Monday 28 June 2010

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A quick blood test can predict when a woman is unable to have children, according to new scientific research.

The simple test works by measuring levels of a hormone produced by the ovaries, and will be able to tell women as young as 20 when they will no longer be fertile.

The kit is predicted to go on sale within the next three years and will be popular with women trying to balance careers with starting a family.

It also means that women who go through menopause earlier than others can start trying for a family, or have their eggs frozen for a later date.

Menopause occurs on average at 51, but approximately 15% or women experience it under the age of 45.

In Britain alone, about 110,000 women in their thirties are going through early menopause at any given time.

Dr Fahimeh Ramezani Tehrani, who led the research, says: ‘Our results suggest that the novel marker anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) could precisely forecast the age at menopause, even in young women.'

In the past, scientists have believed that changing levels of this hormone are linked to menopause, but there was insufficient data to back it up.

However, by gathering information from a large number of women, Tehrani is confident she has created a mathematical equation that will predict when a woman will go through ‘the change'.

In addition to detecting early menopause, the test - backed by the World Health Organisation - can spot an increased risk of osteoporosis and heart disease.

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Monday 28 June 2010

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This has been the holy grail of women reproductive health. Now it seems women would know more about their future than man can ever know. Two things which changed the life a woman: modern contraceptives specially pills and now the prediction power for how long to take the pill. But more interesting than that, is where these two techniques were developed. One was invented in United States while the other was invented in Iran. Two nations poles apart. I guess there is still some hope left in this world, for better. I wonder if instead of colonialism and wars we could have cooperated more with each other so that we could have even better things. After all we only have one planet to live on. Another interesting things about this is that most males are dismissing it out of hand. It is sad to see this still going on in 21st century. Even the male doctors and scientists are dismissing it. So sad. There has been no congrats for the lead female researcher in this study. Even more sad is to see still in this age and time that most of the presidents of gynecology societies are males, the the same males who are dismissing this study and creating doubt instead of working with Iranian scientists to perfect this test.
Comment by Smith W. on June 28 12:36

Sounds like a good thing to me.

As someone who is now trying for her first child at the age of 36 (almost) a test like this would be invaluable. More and more women are waiting till later to have children now due to them having careers or not finding a partner they wish to concieve with till later in life.

If you are armed with this knowledge you can try and make more informed life decisions based around it.
Comment by Dyson on June 28 13:17

This would be amazing! It is so hard to balance career and relationships but both are such important parts of our lives. I fear missing out on career opportunities to settle down and then finding out I can't have kids.
This would let you decide how to make some tough decisions.
Comment by P James on June 28 20:57