ROME Doctors in Iran have developed what they believe is an accurate and simple blood test to establish when a woman will hit the menopause, it was reported on Sunday.

Dr Fahimeh Ramezani Tehrani will tell the 26th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Rome that the test - which could influence a woman's decision on when to try for a baby - measures the concentrations of a hormone produced by cells in women's ovaries.

In the small study carried out by Tehrani's team, doctors were able to predict the likely date of the menopause to within an average of four months. The maximum margin of error was three to four years.

On average, women hit the menopause at around the age of 52, according to the study.

However, it happens to some women much earlier, sometimes while they are in their 30s. A test could help women who may want a family but unwittingly leave it too late to conceive naturally.

The blood test detects levels of anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH), which controls the development of follicles in the ovaries from which oocytes (eggs) develop.

The researchers took blood samples from 266 women aged 20 to 49, who were taking part in the much larger Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study. They measured the women's concentrations of AMH and then returned to them to collect two further blood samples at three-yearly intervals.

The researchers also collected information on the women's socio-economic backgrounds and reproductive history and gave them physical examinations every three years.

Based on the AMH concentrations, they estimated when the menopause was likely to occur for women at different ages and different stages of their reproductive lives.

During the course of the study, 63 women reached menopause, and the researchers found their estimates were correct to within an average of four months.

Higher levels of the hormone predicted later menopause than lower levels.

“The results from our study could enable us to make a more realistic assessment of women's reproductive status many years before they reach menopause,” Tehrani said.

“For example, if a 20-year-old woman has a concentration of serum AMH of 2.8 nanograms per millilitre, we estimate that she will become menopausal between 35 and 38 years old.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first prediction of age at menopause that has resulted from a population-based cohort study.

“We believe that our estimates of ages at menopause based on AMH levels are of sufficient validity to guide medical practitioners in their day to day prac- tice so that they can help women with their family planning.”

The study now needed to be replicated on a larger scale, she said, adding “Our findings indicate that AMH is capable of specifying a woman's reproductive status more realistically than chronological age per se.

“Considering that this is a small study that has looked at women over a period of time, larger studies starting with women in their twenties and following them for several years are needed to validate the accuracy of serum AMH concentration for the prediction of menopause in young women.”—Dawn/The Guardian News Service