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Background: A test that helps predict the time to the final menstrual period (FMP) has been sought for many years., Objective: To assess the ability of antimullerian hormone (AMH) measurements to predictions the time to FMP., Design: Prospective longitudinal cohort study., Setting: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation., Participants and Measurements: AMH and FSH were measured in 1537 pre- or early perimenopausal women, mean age 47.5 ± 2.6 years at baseline, then serially until 12 months of amenorrhea occurred. AMH was measured using a 2-site ELISA with a detection limit of 1.85 pg/mL., Main Outcome Measure: Areas under the receiver operating curves (AUC) for AMH-based and FSH-based predictions of time to FMP, stratified by age. Probabilities that women would undergo their FMP in the next 12, 24, or 36 months across a range of AMH values were assessed., Results: AUCs for predicting that the FMP will occur within the next 24 months were significantly greater for AMH-based than FSH-based models. The probability that a woman with an AMH <10 pg/mL would undergo her FMP within the next 12 months ranged from 51% at h<48 years of age to 79% at ≥51 years. The probability that a woman with an AMH >100 pg/mL would not undergo her FMP within the next 12 months ranged from 97% in women <48 years old to 90% in women ≥51 years old., Conclusions: AMH measurement helps estimate when a woman will undergo her FMP, and, in general, does so better than FSH., (© Endocrine Society 2020. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Context: Sex steroid hormones have been linked to fractures in older women., Objective: To test the hypothesis that hormones measured over the menopausal transition predict fractures., Setting: Seven US clinical centers., Subjects and Measurements: Two thousand nine hundred sixty women (average age, 46.4 ± 2.7 years) who had at least two repeat hormone measures and prospective information on fractures. Fasting serum was collected annually for hormone assays. Estradiol (E2) was measured with a modified direct immunoassay. FSH and SHBG were measured with two-site chemiluminescence immunoassays. Hormones were lagged (visit year -1) and transformed using log base 2. Incident fractures were ascertained at each annual visit. All medications including hormone therapy were time varying covariates. Discrete survival methods were used., Results: Five hundred eight (17.2%) women experienced an incident fracture over an average follow up of 8.8 ± 4.4 years. Women who experienced an incident fracture were more likely to be white, report high alcohol intake and diabetes, and less likely to report premenopausal status at baseline. A woman whose log E2 was twice that of another had a 10% lower risk of fracture independent of covariates, relative risk (95% CI) = 0.90 (0.82, 0.98). Neither FSH nor SHBG were associated with fractures., Conclusions: Serum E2 levels may help to identify women at higher risk of fractures over the menopausal transition. However, hormone assays must be standardized across laboratories for clinical implementation and further work is needed to define E2 thresholds., (Copyright © 2019 Endocrine Society.)

Context: Menstrual cycle hormone patterns in women approaching menopause are inadequately studied., Objective: To describe day-to-day menstrual cycle hormones in women as they approach menopause from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation Daily Hormone Study (DHS)., Design: DHS enrollees collected daily urine for one entire menstrual cycle or up to 50 days, whichever came first, annually, up to the final menstrual period (FMP) or for up to 10 years., Setting: Seven sites across the United States., Participants: A total of 511 premenopausal or early perimenopausal women at enrollment, within 10 years before menopause., Intervention: Time-to-FMP measurement., Main Outcome Measures: Evidence of luteal activity (ELA), determined using objective algorithms. Menstrual cycle/segment length; whole cycle, and segment integrated urinary luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, estrone conjugates, and pregnanediol glucuronide (Pdg) for each year, organized around the FMP., Results: Mean menstrual cycle length was remarkably preserved at 26 to 27 days in ELA cycles; non-ELA cycles had greater variability. The percentage of cycles that were ELA remained high until 5 years before the FMP (87.9%); only 22.8% of cycles within 1 year of the FMP were ELA. Whole cycle hormones remained relatively stable up to 3 years before the FMP, when gonadotropins began to increase. Pdg excretion declined slowly with progress to the FMP, but Pdg patterns of ELA cycles remained distinguishable from non-ELA., Conclusions: Menstrual cycle hormone patterns in perimenopausal women resemble those of midreproductive-aged women until 5 years before menopause, and presumably ovulatory cycles retain a potentially fertile pattern up to the end of reproductive life., (Copyright © 2017 Endocrine Society)

Context: Although there is evidence of metabolic risks in young women with irregular menses and androgen excess, persistence of risks after menopause is unclear., Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the impact of menopause on the cardiometabolic profile in women with high androgens and a history of menstrual irregularity., Methods: Study of Women's Health Across the Nation is a longitudinal cohort study. Data from 1929 women without metabolic syndrome (MetS) at baseline were analyzed for incidence of MetS, self-reported stroke, and myocardial infarction. Cox hazard ratios (HRs) were estimated, adjusting for age, ethnicity, body mass, smoking, menopausal status, and study site., Results: Among MetS-free women at baseline, 497 new cases were identified during 20 249 woman-years of follow-up over 12 years. Women with hyperandrogenemia (HA) and oligomenorrhea (Oligo) developed incident cases of MetS at a comparable rate compared with their counterparts: eumenorrheic, normoandrogenic women [HR 1.4 (0.9-2.2)], oligomenorrheic, normoandrogenic women [HR 1.3 (0.8-2.2)], and eumenorrheic hyperandrogenic women [HR 1.2 (0.7-1.8)]. Smoking and obesity were the strongest predictors of incident MetS. There was no significant difference in incidence of self-reported stroke or MI by HA/Oligo status., Conclusions: Longitudinal evidence suggests that a history of androgen excess and menstrual irregularity is not associated with worsening of metabolic health after menopause. Our findings challenge the notion that a history of concurrent HA and Oligo reflects ongoing cardiometabolic risk in postmenopausal women.

Context: Young reproductive-age women with irregular menses and androgen excess are at high risk for unfavorable metabolic profile; however, recent data suggest that menstrual regularity and hyperandrogenism improve with aging in affected women approaching menopause., Objective: The objective of the study was to determine whether women with hyperandrogenemia (HA) and a history of oligomenorrhea (Oligo) are at an elevated risk for metabolic syndrome (MetS) at the early stages of menopausal transition., Methods: Baseline data from 2543 participants (mean age of 45.8 yr) in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation were analyzed. Women with a lifetime history of more than one 3-month interval of nongestational and nonlactational amenorrhea were classified as having a history of Oligo. The highest tertile of serum testosterone was used to define HA. Women with normal serum androgens and eumenorrhea were used as the reference group. Logistic regression models generated adjusted odds ratios (AOR), controlling for age, ethnicity, body mass index, smoking, and study site., Results: Oligo was associated with MetS only when coincident with HA [AOR of 1.93 for Oligo and HA [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.17-3.17], AOR of 1.25 for Oligo and normal androgens (95% CI 0.81-1.93)]. In contrast, HA conferred a consistently significant risk for MetS, regardless of the menstrual frequency status [AOR of 1.48 for HA and eumenorrhea (95% CI 1.15-1.90)]., Conclusions: Our results suggest that HA but not history of Oligo is independently associated with the risk of prevalent MetS in pre- and perimenopausal women in their 40s.

Unlabelled: OBJECTIVE AND CONTEXT: The objective of the study was to determine whether luteal abnormalities or measures of sex steroid hormones collected across a menstrual cycle were associated with bone mineral density (BMD) at the total hip or lumbar spine., Design and Setting: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation is a longitudinal, community-based study conducted at seven clinical sites. Study of Women's Health Across the Nation includes a daily hormone study substudy in which daily urine samples are collected for one menstrual cycle (up to a maximum of 50 d) each year., Participants: Participants included 643 pre- and perimenopausal women, aged 43-53 yr., Main Outcome Measures: BMD of the lumbar spine and total hip was measured by dual-energy x-ray densitometry. Daily urine samples were assayed for estrone conjugates, pregnanediol glucuronide, LH, and FSH, and the information from across the menstrual cycle was expressed as area under the curve (AUC). BMD levels were evaluated in relation to three menstrual cycle attributes: 1) absence or presence of ovulation; 2) luteal phase length to menstrual cycle length ratio; and 3) ovulatory disturbances, defined as anovulatory cycles or cycles with short luteal phases (<10 d)., Results: Lower urine estrone conjugate AUC and higher urine FSH AUC were significantly associated with lower BMD. However, luteal abnormalities based on menstrual cycle attributes were not significantly associated with BMD at the total hip or lumbar spine after adjustment for age, body mass index, urinary hormone concentrations, menopausal status, and race/ethnicity., Conclusions: Direct measures of urinary hormones, not menstrual cycle luteal abnormalities, were associated with lower levels of BMD.