” To be able to minimize the rate and step in and amount of bone loss, we require to know if this loss is currently continuous or impending,” stated the studys lead author, Dr. Arun Karlamangla, a professor of medicine in the division of geriatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “We do not dependably understand prior to it really happens when a womans last menstrual duration will be, so we can not tell whether it is time to do something about bone loss.”
Bone loss generally begins about a year prior to a ladys last menstrual duration, Karlamangla said.
Ladies experience considerable bone loss throughout the menopause transition, an approximately three-year window that brackets the last menstrual period and is accompanied by other symptoms such as irregular menstruations, hot flashes, and mood and sleep conditions. Levels of the AMH decline as a womans last menstrual duration draws closer.
The scientists taken a look at data from the Study of Womens Health Across the Nation, or SWAN, a multisite, multi-ethnic study examining the changes females undergo during the shift to menopause.
They discovered that 17% of premenopausal women age 42 or older will have lost a substantial fraction of their peak bone mass within 2 to 3 years of the date a doctor makes the forecast. Amongst those with less than 50 picograms of AMH per milliliter of blood, nearly double the percentage, 33%, will have lost a substantial fraction of peak bone mass in the exact same timeframe. (A picogram is one-trillionth of a gram.).
In addition, 42% of ladies in early perimenopause– suggesting that they have irregular menstrual bleeding but with no more than a three-month space in between periods– will have lost a significant portion of peak bone mass within 2 to 3 years. However amongst females in early perimenopause with AMH levels listed below 25 pg/mL, 65% will have lost a substantial percentage of peak bone mass in that time.
The study has some constraints, the scientists keep in mind. The findings can not be applied to females who are already taking osteoporosis medications, have actually gone through a hysterectomy prior to their final duration, or have used exogenous sex hormones throughout the shift to menopause; and the research study did not consist of Hispanic women, nor did it include ladies who became menopausal prior to age 42.
” These findings make feasible the developing and testing of midlife interventions to delay or avoid osteoporosis in females,” the research studys authors write.
Recommendation: “Anti-mullerian hormone as predictor of future and ongoing bone loss during the menopause shift” 4 April 2022, Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
The Study of Womens Health Across the Nation is supported by the National Institutes of Health through the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Nursing Research and the NIH Office of Research on Womens Health.
The research studys co-authors are Dr. Albert Shieh and Dr. Gail Greendale of UCLA; Dr. Elaine Yu, Dr. Sherri-Ann Burnett-Bowie, Dr. Patrick Sluss and Dr. Joel Finkelstein of Harvard University; Deborah Martin of the University of Pittsburgh; and Anthony Morrison of Motive Biosciences.
A 3D rendering of a cross-section of the spinal column revealing bone loss due to osteoporosis. Females experience considerable bone loss throughout an approximately three-year period called the menopause shift.
Physicians might be able to determine if menopause-related bone loss is already in development or about to start by measuring the level of a hormone that decreases as females approach their last menstrual duration, new UCLA research study discovers.
The findings might assist physicians determine when, and how, to treat bone loss in females as they age prior to that bone loss triggers substantial health concerns, according to the research study. Particularly, the research study found that for ladies 42 and older who are not yet postmenopausal, levels of anti-Mullerian hormonal agent, or AMH, can be used to figure out if they are experiencing, or about to experience, bone loss connected to their transition into menopause.
The findings will be released today (April 4, 2022) in the peer-reviewed Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.