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Research presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, finds that a diet rich in soy could prevent weight gain in post-menopausal women.

Previous research suggests that reduced levels of the hormone estrogen during menopause are responsible for the increased body weight and abdominal fat often experienced by postmenopausal women. However, while estrogen replacement therapies can reduce weight gain, they also have unwelcome side effects, prompting a search for alternative methods of treatment. Soy naturally contains estrogen-like compounds called phytoestrogens, and so dietary soy may provide an alternative to typical estrogen replacement therapies.

Michelle Murphy from the Monell Chemical Senses Center found decreased body weight and increased energy expenditure

A simple doctor’s-office blood test may one day be able to predict when a woman will start menopause, possibly even in women in their 20s.

Pending validation in future studies, the test could help women make reproductive decisions, say the authors of a study that will be presented Monday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Rome.

But the test definitely isn’t ready for prime time and may not be used primarily to guide family planning decisions, even if it is eventually brought to market, other experts say.

In the study, researchers from Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, in Tehran, Iran, measured blood levels of anti-mullerian hormone in 266 women who were ages 20 to 49.

AMH is proportional to the number of viable eggs left in the ovaries, which produce the

Diminished bone density, caused by low levels of estrogen common among menopausal women, raises the risk of osteoporosis, bone fractures and subsequent complications. Traditional therapies have sought to maintain the level of estrogen in the body. New research suggests, however, that another hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), also may be involved in decreasing bone density during menopause, and may guide researchers to an alternative avenue for treatment of this debilitating condition.

In the five years leading up to menopause, FSH levels gradually increase as bone density begins to decrease over the same period of time. Data from animal studies has pointed to a link between FSH and bone density.

During menopausal bone loss, the destructive activity of osteoclasts, which break down bone, outweighs rebuilding activity of osteoblasts, which regenerate bone, resulting in an overall weakening of the