Is there a doctor in the house who can interpret these blood tests and tell me if I’m in the menopause yet please?!

[Safiya5]

Hi - it’s two weeks before I can get an appt at the GP, so I was just wondering what these blood test results could mean, if anyone could help please? Particularly the “post menopause >25 IU / L”. I don’t think I’m post-menopause because my periods are still normal. I’m 43. Many thanks!

Your FSH is 18.1. The categories below are the ranges it is normal for. It is normal for mid cycle. You are not postmenopausal. Make sense?

Not a doctor but pretty sure everything from "follicular phase" down is just the reference levels for the test, and your level is 18.1

Oh ok Thankyou. What does the >25 mean?

Also the definition of menopause is a year since your last period. You are having regular periods so by definition are not post menopausal. Blood tests only come into any use if you have no periods- usually because of hormonal contraception.

25 is just the reference range. It means if the level as greater than 25 then it would mean you are post menopausal.

Thankyou yes I can see now they are reference scales. I thought it was relating to days of the menstrual cycle. So I’m upper end of the “mid cycle” - is the mid cycle the “period phase?”

No. It is when you usually ovulate.

First half of the cycle is oestrogen driven- the ovulatory phase. Then you have a surge of the hormones LH and FSH then you ovulate (roughly day 14). Then the second half is progesterone driven and called the luteal phase.

FSH is hard to interpret because it goes up and down so much in the cycle. Mid cycle literally means somewhere in the middle of the cycle.

No, mid-cycle would be around the time you ovulate. The follicular phase is when the ovarian follicle is developing. Mid-cycle occurs at ovulation. The luteal phase is the phase between ovulation and menses.

That makes sense. Thankyou so much!