What If Menopause Could Be Predicted?

| Saturday, February 19, 2011
By Liana Badea


Menopause sets in when the monthly menstrual cycle stops and the woman reproductive role in society stops. At menopausal age the number of eggs in a female body reaches the lowest count.

Eggs form in a female's ovary while she is still in the womb. At birth there are several hundred thousand eggs; when menstruation begins, about 300,000; at about age 37, a woman has about 25,000 eggs left, and at menopause only about 1,000.

Every woman will experience menopause differently, because every woman is unique and different. The age menopause start could be 45 for some women, 50 or 55 for others. The menopause symptoms could be severe and almost unbearable for some, or easy and almost unnoticeable for others.

What if you knew the exact age when you will stop being fertile? What difference would this make in your life?

New researches developed a test to determine the age when menopause settles in a woman's body.

The theory behind this research is that as a woman ages, ovaries shrink. Therefore, there is a direct correlation between ovarian volume and number of eggs. Researchers applied mathematical and computer models to predict menopause and potentially help women to plan their lives.

This test could be the beginning of a new stage for women who can not conceive, for women treated for different cancers, actually for all women.

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.

The conclusion is obvious: women shouldn't wait too long for planning babies. No matter how advanced the assisted reproductive technology is, no matter how sophisticated the so called prediction tests are.

So should a 30 years old woman go for a test to figure out how many years of fertility she has left? Should she make career decisions based on this test? Is this test good enough to predict menopause?

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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