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The menopause blood test sheet
These are not tests for menopause. They are the tests that rule out the conditions which produce almost identical symptoms — and every one of them is treatable. Take this sheet to your appointment, then use the second half to record what came back, because "your bloods were fine" is not a result.
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Blood tests — request and results
Bring this to your visit. Your clinician decides which tests are appropriate for you; this is here to make the conversation specific.
1. The tests worth discussing
Tick what you want to raise. Write the number, the units and the reference range — not "normal".
| Test | Date | Result + units | Reference range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full blood countAnaemia. Ask for the MCV — cell size splits the causes. | |||
| FerritinIron stores. Falls before haemoglobin does. | |||
| Thyroid functionPeaks in this age group and imitates the transition. | |||
| Vitamin B12Fatigue, brain fog, tingling, low mood. | |||
| HbA1cAverage blood sugar. Changes silently in this decade. | |||
| Vitamin DAches, low mood, and it matters for bone. | |||
| Blood pressureNot a blood test. Rises quietly around this time. |
2. Worth adding if it applies to you
| Test | Date | Result + units | Reference range |
|---|---|---|---|
| LipidsCholesterol shifts around the transition. | |||
| Coeliac screenIf iron is low and not refilling. | |||
| FolateAlongside B12. | |||
| Kidney / liverIf starting or reviewing medication. |
3. What I want to ask
4. Symptoms I want checked against these results
5. What we agreed
Menova · menova.life — independent, we sell no tests and no supplements. This sheet is general education, not medical advice, and not a diagnosis. Which tests are appropriate is a decision for a licensed clinician who knows your history.
Why these tests, and not a hormone panel
The single most common dead end in perimenopause is paying for a hormone panel. For women over 45, major guidance advises against using FSH or estradiol to diagnose the transition, because levels swing enormously from week to week — a result can look post-menopausal one fortnight and unremarkable the next. The diagnosis is made from symptoms and cycle pattern, which is why our guide to working out where you are is about tracking rather than testing.
What the tests on this sheet do is different and more useful. Exhaustion, brain fog, low mood, hair shedding, palpitations, feeling cold, aching joints — every one of those is produced by iron deficiency, thyroid disease, B12 deficiency or raised blood sugar as readily as by the transition. Our guide to symptoms most often misread as menopause goes through them one by one. Missing one of these means treating the wrong thing for years.
"Your bloods were fine" is not a result
Normal means inside the laboratory's reference range, and those ranges are wide. A result can sit at the very bottom and still be worth acting on. Ferritin is the clearest example — it is routinely reported as normal at a level many clinicians would treat, and it is the test most worth having the actual number for. Our guide to reading your own results explains what to look at, and low ferritin in perimenopause covers that one in detail.
Asking for the numbers is not a challenge to anyone. It is how you compare this year against next year, which nobody else is going to do for you — see keeping your own health record.
If iron is low, the question is why
Iron deficiency is a finding, not a diagnosis. Supplementing while losing the same amount every month refills nothing, so heavy bleeding is the actual thing to treat — see heavy periods in perimenopause. And iron deficiency without an obvious cause, particularly after menopause when periods no longer explain it, needs investigating rather than supplementing. Our fuller guide is when iron is not the answer, and how to actually take iron covers absorption.
When to do this
Early. In our six-month plan this sits in month one, alongside starting a record — because the results change what the rest of the conversation is about. If you have a few weeks before your appointment, the free 30-day symptom tracker gives you the pattern to put in section 4, and the where to start guide covers the order.
Why this is free
Menova is an independent publication. We sell no tests, no supplements and no reports. There is no email gate, because gating a test sheet behind an address would make it a lead form rather than a useful tool. Where we link to a care provider elsewhere on the site it is disclosed — see our affiliate disclosure.