Menopause Diagnosis

When can a woman know she has become menopause?

A woman is considered to be menopausal when she has not had a period for 12 consecutive months and there is no other medical reason for this, such as pregnancy, breastfeeding, etc.

Are hormone levels and blood tests useful in diagnosing menopause?

Because hormone levels can fluctuate in a woman (even from one day to the next), they are not useful in diagnosing menopause unless the tests are repeated several times. A woman’s level of a hormone may be low one day and high the next. There is no single blood test that can be relied upon to tell whether a woman is menopausal or premenopausal. There are only tests that can help determine the cause of irregular periods.
Menopause is definitively diagnosed when a woman has stopped having periods
for 12 consecutive months.