Can Menopause Be Predicted?

Posted by ghirly | 1:41 AM

By Liana Badea


Menopause is the end of menstruation or the end of fertility for women. At menopause the eggs in the female body reach the lowest count.

A woman's body has several hundreds of thousands of eggs at birth. The number of eggs gets lower and lower while she ages, so that at menopause she is left with only about 1000.

Every woman is different, so every woman will experience menopause differently. Even the age when menopause starts varies. It could be anywhere between 45 to 55. Menopause occurs naturally, as a normal stage in life, or surgically, when ovaries are removed due to illness or other factors, through a procedure called hysterectomy.

My question to all women is: If you knew the exact age when menopause will happen to you, would you make a life decision based on this fact?

Researchers now say they may be able to determine when the menopause starts, by measuring ovarian volume with trans vaginal ultrasound.

As a woman ages, the ovaries get smaller, and the number of eggs reduces dramatically. Obviously, there is a proportional relation between the volume of the ovaries and the number of eggs left in it. With mathematical and computer models, the scientists produce a formula to actually predict when a woman will stop being able to bear children.

This information will revolutionize the care of women who are being treated for cancer and women attending fertility clinics.

From a different point of view, if you look at the assisted reproductive technology, the overall success of a woman over 40 to get pregnant is very low.

My conclusion is obvious. No woman should wait too long to plan babies, no matter how advanced the assisted reproductive technology is.

So, is this test good enough to predict menopause? Should a woman depend on a test like this and make life decision based on it? Can a test really tell how many years of fertility a woman have left?

The answer is NO. How could you possibly tell someone to go ahead and change their life because of a test result?




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