FAQ about AMH

Ovarian reserve is the amount of quality eggs present in the ovaries.

A woman is born with approximately one to two million eggs. Her egg numbers will decline as they are lost through natural attrition and ovulation over her reproductive life, only around 400 eggs can be successfully ovulated, the rest will be lost through natural cell death (apoptosis). The rate at which eggs are lost through apoptosis varies between individual women and this is why each woman starts menopause at different age. There are about 25,000 follicles in the ovaries when women reach the age of 37, and not all of them can ovulate successfully.

Woman who has a family history of premature menopause, had ovary surgery, suffered from severe endometriosis or had radiotherapy/chemotherapy in the past, has a higher risk of having low ovarian reserve.

Most patients have a regular period, and not every patient who suffered from low ovarian reserve has the risk factor mentioned above. Testing AMH level is a more reliable method for the diagnosis.

The test result allows doctor to interpret female’s “ovary age”, sometimes “ovary age” can be older than female’s actual age. For example, a 35 year old woman has a “ovary age” of 40, which means she has a relatively low ovarian reserve. It is common that most of the women suffered from infertility has a low AMH, indicating low ovarian reserve and therefore difficult natural conception.

In fact, many women have an AMH level that is too low to be detected and the youngest patient is only 37 years old.

A high AMH level indicates that the patient may suffer from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)