  We calculate the rapidity dependence of leading-order medium dilepton yields
resulting from a quark-gluon plasma which has a local time-dependent anisotropy
in momentum space. We present a phenomenological model which includes temporal
evolution of the plasma anisotropy parameter, xi, and the hard momentum scale,
p_hard. Our model interpolates between 1+1 dimensional collisionally-broadened
expansion at early times and 1+1 dimensional ideal hydrodynamic expansion at
late times. Using our model, we find that at LHC energies, forward high-energy
medium dilepton production would be suppressed by up to a factor of 3 if one
assumes an isotropization/thermalization time of 2 fm/c. Therefore, it may be
possible to use forward dilepton yields to experimentally determine the time of
onset of locally isotropic hydrodynamic expansion of the quark-gluon plasma as
produced in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions.
