There are many reasons that cause infertility in women and one of the main reasons is age. As women get older, their chances of getting pregnant diminishes and the reason for that is there is a decline in the quality and in the quantity of eggs but sometimes, couples who get married at younger age also face difficulty getting pregnant and this may be caused by the inferior quality of the eggs in the ovary. Hence, in such a situation, when a couple consults a doctor, the doctor often recommends the female spouse to get tested for AMH. Many couples don’t know knowledge about what AMH is. So, today, we will take a look into what AMH is and why it is important in the treatment of infertility.
What is AMH and how is it related to pregnancy?
Anti-Müllerian Hormone which is known by its abbreviation AMH is a hormone produced by a small ovum in the ovary. This value of the AMH in an AMH test is the measure of the function of ovaries or the number of eggs remaining in the ovary at the time when the test is conducted.
Why do you have to test for AMH?
When women are born, they are usually born with a limited number of eggs. Unlike the male germ cells that can reproduce new sperm all the time, about 1-2 million bubbles in women cannot be regenerated. It may seem that women are born with a large quantity of egg cells but all these eggs cells are destroyed rapidly as they start getting older. Studies have found that when women enter their reproductive age or when their menstruation begins, only about 400,000 bubbles remain. Also, the depletion in the number of eggs continues every month until they enter their golden age. There are other factors also that result in faster depletion of eggs and these factors are genetics, everyday unhealthy behaviors such as stress, insufficient rest, smoking cigarette, drinking alcohol, etc. or other ovarian diseases such as chocolate cysts. These factors not only adversely affect the number of eggs in the ovary but also adversely affect the quality of the eggs. Testing blood for Anti-Müllerian Hormone or AMH levels, which is a fairly accurate test, gives a clear indication of the performance of a woman’s ovaries.
How worthy should AMH be?
No recent data is available to show how accurately AMH is able to diagnose infertility. Generally, AMH varies with age, which means younger women tend to have high AMH values than their older counterparts, but that is not always the case. Some young women may have low AMH because of lesser number of eggs in the ovaries because of the reasons that we discussed above. Therefore, oftentimes, doctors use AMH numbers along with ultrasound and blood work to look at different hormonal values, which helps them diagnose infertility more accurately and prescribe appropriate and faster treatment protocol and plan for pregnancies.
Written by
Dr.Yoko Tawaratsumida
Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Reproductive Medicine