Predicting final period could help prevent osteoporosis

A new way of predicting when a woman will have her final period could help doctors plan preventive treatment for osteoporosis, which often begins about a year before a woman stops menstruating.

Scientists from the University of California assessed data from 554 women aged 42 year to 53 years at the start of the 11-year project. At the beginning of the study, all women were having periods and were not using drugs that affected ovarian function.

The team found that by using women’s ages, menstrual patterns and measuring various hormone levels they could estimate the amount of time remaining until a woman’s final period. The research was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

“Being able to estimate when the final menstrual period will take place has taken on importance beyond just helping women gauge when they will stop having periods,” says Dr Gail Greendale, lead author. “We know that potentially deleterious physiological developments, such as the onset of bone loss and an increase in cardiovascular risk factors, precede the final menses by at least a year.”

If we can estimate when a woman will have her final period, bone-strengthening drugs such as bisphosphonates can be given about a year before to counter the effects of osteoporosis if the risk of fracture is higher than usual.