Diagnosing Menopause

When does a woman know she is in menopause?

A woman is in menopause if she has had no menstrual periods (menses) for 12 months and has no other medical reason for her menses to stop. That means she has to be evaluated by her doctor to exclude other medical causes of missed menses.

Are hormone levels or other blood tests helpful in detecting menopause?

Because hormone levels may fluctuate greatly in an individual woman, even from one day to the next, hormone levels are not a reliable indicator for diagnosing menopause. Even if levels are low one day, they may be high the next day in the same woman. There is no single blood test that reliably predicts when a woman is going through menopause, or menopausal transition. Therefore there is currently no proven role for blood testing regarding menopause except for tests to exclude medical causes of erratic menstrual periods other than menopause. The only way to diagnose menopause is to observe lack of menstrual periods for 12 months in a woman in the expected age range.