New test for menopause-related osteoporosis in the pipeline

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

The level of a certain hormone could detect the risk of bone loss in women later in life.

Doctors may be able to determine if menopause-related osteoporosis is already in progress or about to begin by measuring the level of a hormone that declines as women approach their final menstrual period.

The study's findings could help determine when, and how, to treat bone loss in women as they age before that bone loss causes significant health issues.

Scientists found that for women 42 and older who are not yet postmenopausal, levels of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) can be used to determine if they are experiencing, or about to experience, bone loss related to their transition into menopause.

The study's lead author, Professor Arun Karlamangla of UCLA, said: “To be able to intervene and reduce the rate and amount of bone loss, we need to know if this loss is imminent or already ongoing.

“We do not reliably know before it actually happens when a woman’s last menstrual period will be, so we cannot tell whether it is time to do something about bone loss.”

He said bone loss usually begins about a year before a woman’s last period.

Prof Karlamangla explained that women experience "significant" bone loss during the menopause transition, a roughly three-year window that brackets the final menstrual period and is accompanied by other symptoms such as irregular menstrual cycles, hot flushes, plus mood and sleep disorders. Levels of AMH fall as a woman’s final menstrual period draws closer.

The researchers examined data from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), a multisite, research examining the changes women undergo during the transition to menopause.

They found that around one in six women (17 percent) of pre-menopausal women age 42 or older will have lost a "significant" fraction of their peak bone mass within two to three years of the date a doctor makes the prediction.

But among those with less than 50 picograms of AMH per milliliter of blood, nearly double the number (33 percent) will have lost a significant fraction of peak bone mass in the same timeframe.

In addition, 42 percent of women in early perimenopause - meaning that they have irregular menstrual bleeding but with no more than a three-month gap between periods — will have lost a significant fraction of peak bone mass within two to three years.

But among women in early perimenopause with AMH levels below 25 pg/mL, 65 percent will have lost a significant percentage of peak bone mass in that time.

Prof Karlamangla, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, added: “These findings make feasible the designing and testing of midlife interventions to prevent or delay osteoporosis in women."

The findings were published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.