Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH)
The AMH is a hormone produced by the granulosa cells of the early developing antral follicles. These are the immature eggs that wake up from their dormant state and develop into mature eggs.
As a woman runs out of eggs, the number of these small antral follicles decline in number and as a result the serum Anti-Mullerian hormone falls.
The level of AMH in a woman’s blood is a good indicator of her ovarian reserve and is helpful in assessing her fertility status. A low level of AMH suggests that there is a significant reduction in the remaining supply of eggs.
Advantages of using an AMH test to assess ovarian reserve:
- it does not change over the course of the menstrual cycle, and so AMH can be tested by obtaining a blood sample at ANY TIME OF THE MONTH.
- A low ovarian reserve is one factor in identifying women who may have a low chance of success from fertility treatment.
- If a woman has an unusually high ovarian reserve she may have polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).
- Measurement of ovarian reserve is helpful in deciding the best dose of medicine(s) to use during fertility treatments such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
- For patient who decided to delay starting a family to confirm the supply of eggs is not already significantly reduced.
