From the department of TMI comes news that UCLA researchers had figured out how to predict with a year or so when a woman's last period of all time will be.

Because LA Weekly is your source for stuff you don't really want to know about.

Turns out that academics at the Westwood school have figured out how to test hormones to …

… predict when menopause will begin.

It's actually useful information because women can then prepare for such things as the onset of bone loss and cardiovascular issues associated with the end of reproductive ability.

According to the research, headed for next month's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, testing estradiol (E2) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) could determine if women were within one year of their final periods.

By why you ask? Why torture us with this information? Gail Greendale, professor of medicine in the division of geriatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA:

Being able to estimate when the final menstrual period will take place has taken on importance beyond just helping women gauge when they will stop having periods. We know that potentially deleterious physiological developments, such as the onset of bone loss and an increase in cardiovascular risk factors, precede the final menses by at least a year.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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