The approach of menopause: a New Zealand study

Once weekly observations of the excretion of FSH, LH, oestrogens and pregnanediol have been used to monitor the changes which occur as New Zealand women approach and pass through the menopause. There were 3 patterns of hormone excretion. (1) Premenopausal women (aged 40-51 yr) had regular menstrual cyclicity with hormone patterns similar to those seen in the ovulatory cycles of fertile young women. (2) Women in the menopausal transition (40-55 yr) had irregular menstrual cyclicity with erratic hormone fluctuations. There were ovulatory cycles, postmenopausal episodes in which amenorrhoea was associated with high gonadotrophin levels and low urinary oestrogens, and times when the excretion of both gonadotrophins and oestrogens soared. Ovarian activity did not cease at the menopause, and postmenopausal women in the 6 months following final menstruation (44-55 yr) had hormone patterns which were indistinguishable from those observed in the long anovulatory cycles of the menopausal transition. (3) Older women (57-67 yr) had senescent ovaries with the unvarying high gonadotrophin and low oestrogen levels which are a consequence of ovarian failure.