Menopause Test Kit

A menopause test kit aims to see if your hormone levels in your blood indicate that menopause has occurred. There are a few different types of home test kits on the market, so you should make sure to carefully read the patient information leaflet that comes with your one. This will tell you how to use the test and how to read the results.

Our menopause test kit works by testing the level of FSH in your blood, after you provide a small sample of blood through a pinprick.

Perimenopause is the transition period, which starts years before menopause. It’s when your ovaries gradually begin to make less oestrogen and it usually starts when you’re in your 40s. Perimenopause lasts up right up until menopause.

A single test or sign isn’t enough to determine if you've entered perimenopause. Your doctor will normally consider a lot of factors, including your age, menstrual history, and the symptoms and/or body changes you have. If they think it might be useful, then they can order hormone tests to check your levels, but these aren’t normally used to check for perimenopause itself as hormone levels will be fluctuating during this time.

Generally speaking, you need to be quite careful with how you interpret your menopause test kit results because sometimes if you get a negative test result, but have symptoms of menopause, you might be experiencing perimenopause. No matter of what your result is, the best thing to do is to see your doctor and discuss the situation. They may recommend another test to be sure of the results.

You might want to take a menopause test if you think you might have had the menopause, or be coming up to having it. You might also feel like you’re having menopause symptoms and that these are affecting your daily life.

Some of the symptoms of menopause include:

• Hot flashes/flushes
• Night sweats
• Irregular/infrequent periods
• Thinning hair
• Dryness of the skin
• Dryness of the vagina
• Lower sex drive
• Changes in mood
• Weight gain

Depending on your symptoms, you might need to have some tests. If you’re taking any hormonal treatments (like you might be for treating heavy periods) it can be harder to know when you’re experiencing menopause. In most cases, you could consider a blood test if you’re:

• 40 to 45 years and have menopausal symptoms
• under 40 years and your doctor suspects menopause

Once you’ve had a test, if you’re confirmed to have menopause then you can speak to your GP about treatments, like hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) and whether these are needed and suitable for you. These are a group of treatments that are used to help manage the symptoms of menopause, some of which we offer at ZAVA.

The menopause test kit looks at hormone levels that can be affected by medications. Because of this, we don’t recommend taking a home menopause test kit if you’re using the combined contraceptive pill, or you’re already receiving HRT. This is because if you’re taking a contraceptive containing oestrogen and progestogen or high dose progestogen, this changes your natural FSH levels.

If you get a positive test result, this indicates that you might be experiencing menopause. After your results, you should see your regular GP about this. They might want to run a test in the hospital, as a precaution. Remember that until you see your doctor, you shouldn’t stop using contraceptives – these tests aren’t 100% accurate, and you could be putting yourself at risk of becoming pregnant. Also you will still be at risk of STIs. It’s worth bearing in mind that contraception is still recommended for 1-2 years after the cessation of periods.

Once you speak to your doctor, if you also feel like your symptoms are affecting your daily life significantly, then you can discuss treatment options together. Hormonal replacement therapy may be an option. We’re able to offer some HRT treatments through ZAVA.

It’s important to know that many menopause test kits can accurately check your FSH but can’t check for menopause or perimenopause directly. As you grow older, your FSH levels may rise and fall during your menstrual cycle. While your hormone levels are changing, your ovaries continue to release eggs and you can still become pregnant. Because of reason like these, your test results might not always be right.

There a few other types of tests that you can have:

• Estrogen test: you can have your oestrogen tested with a small sample of either blood, urine, or saliva. Normally, you need to see your doctor to get your blood or urine tested, whereas you can do a saliva test at home. Oestradiol levels fall during menopause, and if the levels are consistently low, this could be a sign of menopause
• Thyroid function test: your doctor might recommend this test because when your thyroid levels are low, this can cause symptoms similar to those of menopause. This test might then help rule out or confirm menopause. You can order these from ZAVA too
• Anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) test: this is a blood test, which is used to measure your number of eggs. It can be offered before IVF to tell whether you’d be able to successfully have a child, since AMH levels decrease with age and also lower the chance of you becoming pregnant. This test might be offered to check for menopause or when you might enter menopause