Anti-mullerian Hormone Test Results

Can I Get Pregnant With Low Amh

You can get pregnant with AMH, but you may need help from ART to do so. It is possible to get pregnant naturally with low AMH, but its less likely. Those that have low AMH are more likely to need fertility treatments to conceive and your AMH levels can be used as an indicator for your chances of success with treatments such as IVF.

If you already have fewer eggs to retrieve for treatments, your chances of successfully using those eggs are lower than if you had a large number of eggs. That being said, every woman is different. For some women with low AMH, its still possible to get pregnant without any intervention.

Amh Beyond Ovarian Reserve

Knowing your AMH level is useful in many other ways. Heres a summary of what AMH can help you understand:

• If you may hit menopause earlier or later than average.Your mom’s age at menopause onset used to be the gold standard for predicting when you may hit menopause. But AMH is proving to be useful as well thats because menopause is characterized by a near depletion of ovarian reserve, which AMH levels can indicate.
• Egg freezing or in-vitro fertilization outcomes. AMH can help you understand how many eggs may be extracted during egg retrieval for egg freezing and IVF.
• If you’re at risk for polycystic ovary syndrome . PCOS is very common and affects 1 in 10 women. It may be marked by high levels of AMH in your test results, which can mean that you have a high number of eggs but that you ovulate irregularly or infrequently .
• If you’re at risk for primary ovarian insufficiency . POI is the loss of ovarian function before age 40, and impacts 1 in 100 women. Its marked by extremely low or undetectable AMH levels in your test results.

Well get into these a bit more in the sections below.

What Does It Mean If I Have A High Amh Level

But at the opposite end of the scale, if your blood shows a very high AMH level above optimum levels – it means you have lots of follicles and this potentially puts you at risk of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome , which is when you produce too many mature eggs.

Whatever your result shows, please remember that your potential for conceiving is influenced by a number of factors, and AMH assessment is only a part of it. We will discuss treatment options with you in full once we know your AMH result, giving you a treatment plan with a protocol personal and individual to you.

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How To Increase Amh Levels

Having a low AMH level means that a woman has a low ovarian reserve .

Low AMH means that you have a low ovarian reserve, but it doesnt mean that you are unable to conceive naturally. Unfortunately, there are no proven ways to increase your AMH levels. Although, some research has shown that vitamin D and DHEA may help increase AMH levels.

Ovarian reserve testing methods

The anti-mullerian hormone is just one potential test of ovarian reserve. Fertility specialists often use a combination of fertility tests to best assess a womans ovarian reserve. These tests include a transvaginal ultrasound to count the number of antral follicles and blood tests to determine hormone levels.

The Implications Of Having High Levels Of Amh

A high AMH level means that you have a higher number of eggs than is expected for your age or than is average for your age. Below you can find a table that outlines the AMH level cutoffs for different age groups.

While high AMH could seem beneficial when it comes to egg retrieval for IVF, there are also some detriments:

PCOS: Polycystic ovary syndrome is a common endocrine disorder caused by an imbalance in hormones one in ten women will be diagnosed with PCOS. Symptoms and observed signs include irregular or absent periods, excess hair growth, weight gain, many follicles that have stopped developing in the ovaries, and fertility issues due to irregular cycles which make it challenging to time intercourse with ovulation. Even though most people with PCOS have a higher number of follicles, they dont all reach full development because of extra androgens in the body.

There are ongoing discussions about an AMH threshold for PCOS diagnosis in the medical community, but there hasnt been agreement yet in the field. AMH is not part of the diagnostic criteria for PCOS, and high levels of AMH aren’t always present in people with PCOS. So if you have PCOS, its important to talk to your doctor about any potential hormonal imbalances so that you can get on the right treatment regimen. Doctors can also trigger ovulation in people whose bodies arent doing it naturally with medications like Clomid , or Letrozole .

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Is There Any Treatment For Amh

Unfortunately, there are no proven ways to increase your AMH levels.

But while you cant increase your egg numbers , you can work to preserve egg quality by not smoking and maintaining a healthy weight as determined by your doctor. Both obesity have been associated with lower egg quality.

Remember, even if you have fewer eggs, you can still have good ones and that will increase your fertility success chances.

How Is The Test Used

Anti-Müllerian hormone is not a routinely ordered test but may be useful in specific circumstances.

AMH test in women: Women of childbearing age may have an AMH test ordered along with other hormone tests, such as estradiol and FSH, to estimate the remaining time left to conceive while being evaluated for infertility. These tests are useful in evaluating ovarian function and possibly in predicting the onset of menopause. In these cases, the clinical use is however best confined to women seeking fertility rather than predicting time to menopause.

AMH may sometimes be ordered for a woman who will be undergoing assisted reproduction procedures such as in vitro fertilization the concentration of AMH present is related to her likely responsiveness to treatment. A low level of AMH reflects poor ovarian response, indicating that a decreased number of eggs would be retrieved after ovarian stimulation. For this purpose, it is typically ordered along with other hormone tests and a transvaginal ultrasound .

AMH may be used to determine whether a woman has entered menopause.

An AMH test may be used to evaluate polycystic ovary syndrome . AMH may be elevated due to the increased number of follicles present.

Some ovarian cancers produce increased levels of AMH. If the hormone is initially elevated, then the test can be used as a tumor marker to help evaluate response to treatment and monitor for recurrence.

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What Is A Normal Amh Level

AMH levels vary depending on your age. In women, AMH levels start rising during adolescence and peak around 25 years old. After that, AMH levels naturally decline.

Providers measure AMH levels in nanograms per milliliter . Experts debate how to define typical AMH levels, but these are general ranges:

• Average: Between 1.0 ng/mL to 3.0 ng/mL.
• Low: Under 1.0 ng/mL.
• Severely low: 0.4 ng/mL.

Its important to note that because labs use different equipment, your results can vary slightly from lab to lab.

Can You Increase Amh Levels

AMH levels will inevitably decrease as you get older, so low AMH at some point is expected and will happen to everyone with ovaries. But what if you have low AMH at a younger age?At the moment, there’s no known cure for low AMH, but potential methods for increasing levels are being studied. One example: A study in the Journal of Human Reproductive Sciences found that moderate exercise was associated with improved age-specific levels of ovarian reserve.It’s important to understand, however, that even if raising AMH levels was deemed possible, it wouldn’t reverse egg loss once an egg is gone, it’s gone.

Additional readings:

• What low AMH means and how it affects fertility

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When Should I Know The Results Of The Test

If your blood sample is sent to a lab, it can take a few days to receive your results. If your healthcare provider ordered this test, theyll schedule a follow-up appointment to discuss your AMH test results . Together, you will come up with the best pregnancy or treatment plan for you.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

Theres a lot of confusion about what AMH test results reveal about fertility. The AMH test cant predict fertility. If youre trying to get pregnant or want to know more about your reproductive health, see a specialist for a comprehensive assessment. And as always, talk to your healthcare provider. They’re there to help.

What Is It Used For

An AMH test is often used to check a woman’s ability to produce eggs that can be fertilized for pregnancy. A woman’s ovaries can make thousands of eggs during her childbearing years. The number declines as a woman gets older. AMH levels help show how many potential egg cells a woman has left. This is known as the ovarian reserve.

If a woman’s ovarian reserve is high, she may have a better chance of getting pregnant. She may also be able to wait months or years before trying to get pregnant. If the ovarian reserve is low, it may mean a woman will have trouble getting pregnant, and should not delay very long before trying to have a baby.

AMH tests may also be used to:

• Predict the start of menopause, a time in a woman’s life when her menstrual periods have stopped and she can’t become pregnant anymore. It usually starts when a woman is around 50 years old.
• Find out the reason for early menopause
• Help find out the reason for amenorrhea, the lack of menstruation. It is most often diagnosed in girls who haven’t started menstruating by the age of 15 and in women who have missed several periods.
• Help diagnose polycystic ovary syndrome , a hormonal disorder that is a common cause of female infertility, the inability to get pregnant
• Check infants with genitals that are not clearly identified as male or female
• Monitor women who have certain types of ovarian cancer

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Amh Changes Over Time

AMH levels are important to monitor over time because they reflect the size of our ovarian reserve, or the number of healthy eggs we have to be fertilized. This is an accurate measure of ovarian function because only healthy, functional follicles produce AMH.

Studies show that AMH correlates well to the number of follicles in the ovaries. Even so, AMH levels vary widely between women and across age groups. Your AMH levels do change over time, though they remain fairly stable throughout most of your menstrual cycle.

In women ages 18-24 with normal AMH levels, this number does not change much from month to month, though it can fluctuate. Women with high AMH levels have been found to have large fluctuations in their AMH measurements over time, while women with low AMH have been found to have smaller fluctuations. Because AMH levels are higher in younger women, this means that younger women may have greater fluctuations in their AMH levels than older women.

The most significant changes in AMH, however, occur as you age. Read on to learn more about how your AMH levels change as you age and what that means for your fertility.

Antimllerian Hormone As An Assessment Of Ovarian Reserve After Gonadotoxic Therapy

Survival rates for reproductive-aged women with cancer have continued to improve over the years. Appropriately, this has resulted in increased attention to the effects of gonadotoxic chemotherapy on long-term ovarian function and fertility potential 27. Although pretreatment antimüllerian hormone levels may help predict menses and the potential for extended amenorrhea after completion of treatment 28, posttreatment antimüllerian hormone levels are highly variable 29, and this high variability affects the usefulness of antimüllerian hormone levels after chemotherapy 28. There are no long-term data on births or fertility. More data on the use of serum antimüllerian hormone levels to predict postchemotherapy fertility and to guide fertility counseling in these patients are needed.

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What Is The Amh

AMH, also known as Anti-Mullerian hormone, is a protein that is produced by the testicles and ovaries in males and females. Alternative names are Mullerian inhibiting factor, Mullerian inhibiting substance or MIS. The levels of AMH depend on both gender and age. For unborn babies, AMH is responsible for the development of the sex organs. When a woman gets pregnant, and during the first few weeks, the reproductive organs of the fetus start developing from the already found genes. The baby either has an XY gene or an XX gene.

If the baby has male genes, the body produces high levels of AMH as well as other male hormones. These puts a halt the development of female organs while promoting the male ones. If the body is not producing enough AMH, the female organs will develop in addition to the male organs. This is referred to as ambiguous genitalia and is characterized by having a male appearance with undescended testes or without any sperm count. This condition, however, is very rare.

If the baby has female genes, low levels of AMH will be produced which will allow the development of the female reproductive organs. After puberty, this protein hormone will start having different roles like being produced by the ovaries. Later on, in life, the AMH will be a great indicator of fertility.

What If I Have Low Amh Levels

If you have very low AMH levels, you are likely to respond poorly to the drug doses involved in conventional IVF. However, Natural IVF and Modified Natural IVF can be more a more suitable treatment for those with low ovarian reserve.

CREATE Fertility is a pioneer in offering this IVF treatment as an option for patients who have low ovarian reserve. At CREATE we will treat any woman under the age of 50 with her own eggs if she is still ovulating and have given many women the chance to try after they have been turned away elsewhere.

If youre worried about low AMH levels and the implications on your fertility it is important to discuss these concerns with a specialist.

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What Is A Normal Amh Level What Is A Low Amh Level Range

Interpretation of anti-mullerian hormone levels

There are some inconsistencies to consider when interpreting the results from an AMH blood test. Since the AMH test has not been in routine use for many years, the levels considered to be normal are not yet clarified and agreed on by the experts. Also, not all current commercial assays give equivalent results.

The table below has AMH interpretation guidelines from fertility literature. Please review your AMH result with your fertility doctors. The graph below should only act as a guide.

For example, the difference between 0.6 and a 0.7 ng/ml test result puts a woman in a different box in this table. In reality, there is very little real difference in fertility potential. In reality, it is a continuum and not something that categorizes well.

It is possible to have undetectable AMH levels if the values are extremely low.

The below graph shows the average AMH level for women not experiencing trouble conceiving, according to age.

PLEASE NOTE: The above table, AMH Blood Levels should not be compared to the graph below as they are measured in different increments.

More will be learned regarding anti-mullerian hormone levels and outcomes. As we continue to use the AMH fertility test and study the relationship between AMH hormone values, fertility, and ovarian responsiveness.

High Amh: What It Means

You might think that high AMH is a good thing. After all, doesnt that mean you have more eggs in your ovarian reserve? If your AMH levels are higher than expected for your age group, that may be true: high AMH may mean you have more time to get pregnant since your ovarian reserve is greater. But in some cases, dramatically high AMH levels can indicate a condition called polycystic ovarian syndrome , which causes many follicles to grow on the ovaries.

Despite high AMH levels, women with PCOS often struggle with infertility. This is because mature follicles, those that are capable of releasing an egg, produce AMH. Women with PCOS have more mature follicles than other women. However, because not all of these follicles can release an egg, the extras often become ovarian cysts instead. Thus, while a woman with PCOS may have higher AMH, these levels do not necessarily mean she has a higher ovarian reserve.

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What Is Amh Testing Used For

Besides identifying your current egg count, AMH levels can also be used to diagnose or predict several conditions:

• The reasons behind early menopause
• The causes for amenorrhea
• Monitor the health of women suffering from certain ovarian cancers
• Predict the start of menopause

Testing for AMH levels is very common when working with a fertility specialist. If your levels are found to be lower than what is considered appropriate for your age group, you will be considered to have diminished ovarian reserve. Your doctor may recommend egg freezing if you arent ready to get pregnant, or other fertility treatments if you are currently trying to conceive.

Knowing your AMH levels can help understand your chances at successfully using assisted reproductive technology for conception. For example, if you have normal levels for your age, there is a higher chance that a larger number of eggs will be retrieved for freezing or IVF. Understanding your AMH levels is only one piece of the puzzle, but it gives you important information to help make your fertility plan.

Remember, your AMH levels give you a picture of what your current ovarian reserve looks like. It cannot be used to indicate what it will look like in the future or how quickly the number of eggs available will change. However, it is a great starting point for conversations with your doctor about your fertility plans.