To use a menopause home test kit?

[pandorawithtreaclecolouredhair]

At age 54, I am still having fairly regular periods, the last being around five weeks ago.
Each time, I hope that period will be the last one, and would love to be able to know when they are finished for good!
I have heard about home test kits which tell you whether you have reached your menopause, by testing FSH in the urine.
Does anyone have experience of using these kits?
Just wondering if it's worthwhile, and how reliable they are.

Web MD says it's not really reliable sadly:

www.webmd.com/menopause/guide/home-menopause-testing-kits

Why don't you pop onto the menopause board and ask - there's a poster called polly perky who is a real guru on the topic, if she still posts!

Surely if you are still having periods, then you aren't menopausal?

Nah, Mother Nature loves to screw with us for a few years first! You can be in perimenopause for 2-10 years, on average, and still having pretty regular periods!

The problem with the test, as I understand it, is that hormones fluctuate all day, every day.

Oh, I thought the definition of menopause, was not having had a period for 1 year or longer.

Yep that's the definition of actual menopause - but I think the purpose of the tests is to see if you're on the (fun) path to it. So if you have higher FSH levels, it means your body is working harder to release an egg, which is one indicator that you're nearer menopause. That's what the urine test is looking for, essentially.

I tried one of these a couple of years ago,when I was 52,and hadn't had a period for 18 months. It told me I was not menopausal.

I asked my GP for a test and she refused stating that the levels fluctuate so much that I could test positive one day and negative the next.